National Journal's CongressDaily / Tuesday, Dec. 7, 1999 / by Jerry Hagstrom
White House Chief of Staff Podesta said Monday the Clinton administration will prepare a new farm bill proposal in time for the hearings planned early next year by House Agriculture Chairman Combest. Podesta told a Farm Journal conference the administration would "present ideas on countercyclical income support and ways to make conservation work better." Podesta added: "Farmers deserve better than what they are getting out of the farm bill today. Congress has failed to come to grips with the fact that Freedom to Farm has some fundamental flaws." Podesta said the administration wants to keep the planting flexibility provision.
Deputy Treasury Secretary Stuart Eizenstat, who has worked on farm issues in his previous Clinton administration jobs as ambassador to the European Union and as a State Department undersecretary, also told the conference the administration is conducting a multi-departmental "detailed and searching" analysis of farm policy. But in an indication of the battles ahead on farm policy, American Farm Bureau President Dean Kleckner, speaking at the conference, said, "I do not accept that Freedom to Farm has failed," a reference to the 1996 farm bill. And he added that he does not want to return to "failed programs of supply control." But other farmers in the audience said they were not satisfied with the current program.
Meanwhile, Combest issued a statement Monday that the failure of agriculture negotiators to reach agreement on a new trade round at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle means his committee will consider "all options," including increasing farm spending to encourage exports. Combest said: "While I was hopeful that an agreement could be obtained to proceed with agricultural negotiations, no agreement is better than a bad one. I commend Ambassador Barshefsky, Secretary of Agriculture Glickman and Agricultural Trade Ambassador Peter Scher for hanging tough." Combest continued: "Without a framework to at least begin negotiations toward subsidy elimination, I believe the Agriculture Committee should review all of our options for our own programs. I hope that the [trade] discussions do resume early next year and can be positively concluded. An international `bidding war' could become very expensive and counterproductive. If that, however is the only option available, I want our farmers to know I will do everything I can to make sure America's 'bid' in the war is competitive.":
