| May 23, 2008 |
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Washington Ag Update is prepared each week by the National Affairs Department
of Alabama Farmers Federation to report the latest news from the nation's
capitol that affects Alabama farmers. The Capitol Connection on our website will provide additional information or you may e-mail Keith Gray at alfaDC@aol.com or
call him at 202-434-8212.
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SENATE VOTE: 14 OF 15 FARM BILL TITLES NOW LAW
President Bush vetoed the farm bill as promised Thursday, and the House overrode the veto by a vote of 316 to 108. The Senate followed suit by overriding the veto 82-13-1. However, the White House discovered the president had signed a copy of the farm bill without Title III, the trade title, meaning the president had vetoed a bill different than the one passed by the House and Senate. Thursday night, the parliamentarian ruled the process would have to begin anew. Despite this glitch, the Senate decided to vote to override the veto of the incomplete bill. With this vote complete, 14 of the 15 titles of the farm bill (all except Title III) are now law. To correct the previous enrolling error, the House earlier also voted again on the complete conference report with a new bill number (HR 6124), and it passed on suspension with a vote of 306-110. Despite the new bill number, this bill is identical to HR 2419. This “new” bill will now move to the Senate for a vote, likely right after returning from recess in early June. It takes about three days to “enroll the bill” and have it sent to the president. We expect he will veto it in short order. The House and Senate then will both have to override the veto of the complete bill when they return after the Memorial Day recess to end the process. Because the House and Senate have determined that 14 of the 15 titles of the farm bill are already law, there will be no short-term extension of the 2002 farm bill. Because the farm bill glitch cannot be fixed today, the House will not be able to approve the 2009 Budget Resolution until June either. If it was completed prior to completion of the farm bill, Congress would be forced to use the March 2008 baseline rather than the March 2007 baseline, making it much more difficult to fund all necessary programs.
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