Senate Approves Landmark Farm Bill
The Senate voted Wednesday February 6th, 1996 to change 60 years of farm policy, pruning
crop subsidies in enchange for giving farmers new planting freedoms and seven years of
guaranteed checks.
The "Freedom to Farm" bill, passed on a 64-32 vote. The year long Senate fight over the 1995
Farm Bill now moves to the House of Representatives, which will not meet until February 26.
The bill passed by the Senate rewrites the traditional bargin that the farmers have had with
the federal government since the 1930s. It required that farmers restrict how much they grow
in exchange for subsidies when crop prices were low.
The Senate's new bill erases that formula. Farmers with a history of growing wheat, corn, feeds
grains, rice or cotton would be guaranteed $40,000 a person but will be declining each of the
next seven years. It doesn't matter if crop prices go up or down, nor how much they grow. Even
if farmers let crop land lay idle, the checks will arrive.
Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said the Senate passage of the bill was "a step in the
right direction." But, he said,"I remain concerned that the bill will provide payments when
market conditions are good, and that it does not provide as strong a safety net for family
farmers as we would like."
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