House Again Passes Farm Bill as Senate Overrides
May 23, 2008By Peter Shinn, Brownfield Ag News
The House of Representatives on Thursday again passed the House-Senate Farm Bill Conference Report, this time by a vote of 306 to 110. The move came as lawmakers scrambled to correct a clerical error that sent the farm bill to President Bush without Title III, the trade title. President Bush vetoed the incomplete bill Wednesday and the House voted shortly thereafter to override the veto.
Debate in the House Thursday over how to address the missing farm bill title at times became rancorous. And House Ag Committee Chairman Collin Peterson pleaded with colleagues to approve a rule that would allow quick votes on a number of potential approaches to dealing with the latest farm bill stumbling block.
“Now we have to fix this and so what we’re doing with this rule is allowing us to pass the whole bill again, send it over to the Senate,” Peterson explained. “We’re also going to pass a bill that just has Title III in it, send that to the Senate, so that we give the Senate all of the options that they need so we can get this expedited and fixed as soon as possible.”
Senators, for their part, moved Thursday only to override the President’s veto of most of the farm bill, which they did by the overwhelming vote of 82 to 13. Afterward, Senate Ag Committee Chairman Tom Harkin said no one should worry about whether or not the vast majority of the 2008 farm bill is now in effect.
“I just want to make sure that there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind now,” assured Harkin. “14 of the 15 titles in this farm bill are now law.”
Indeed, Harkin largely brushed-off the missing trade title. He suggested the issue was more of a legislative irritant than a serious concern.
“We do have this one little glitch, I think probably an innocent mistake, a clerical error that Title III was not included and we’ll deal with that at some other point,” Harkin said. “I don’t know exactly when but that shouldn’t be much of a problem since it was simply a clerical error.”
Still, the trade title does contain such things as international food aid under the PL-480 program and technical assistance for specialty crop producers. And Harkin admitted the Senate would have to “immediately” deal with getting the missing title enacted into law after Congress returns from its two-week Memorial Day recess.
“We have been touch with USDA and USAID - the Agency for International Development - and they tell me - or told my staff - that, basically, they could get by with two weeks without us having to do anything,” Harkin said.
Related Links:
House Agriculture Commitee
Senate Agriculture Commitee
