A proposal to cut $3 billion from US farm support programs hit a roadblock on Thursday when a provision to revive a milk subsidy met opposition from at least one member of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
"We're going to do our best to get this back on track," said committee chairman Saxby Chambliss, Georgia Republican. But he said the dispute would prevent a committee vote on his package until late October.
The House and Senate Agriculture committees are under orders from Congress, as part of fiscal belt-tightening, to find $3 billion in cuts in Agriculture Department programs for the coming five years. Chambliss's proposal would trim crop subsidies, food stamps and other agriculture programs.
The cuts are part of an attempt by Republicans to rein in government-wide spending by a total $35 billion over five years. Other targeted programs include health care for the poor, student loans and pension insurance. The centerpiece of Chambliss' plan is a 2.5 percent pro-rating of crop and dairy subsidy payments. Honoring a White House pledge, it also would revive the just-expired Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) subsidy at a cost of $1 billion for two years.
"Frankly, that's where we broke down," Chambliss told two dozen farm lobbyists before asking for their help in persuading committee members to vote for the package. In a highly unusual action, Chambliss invited reporters to observe his half-hour meeting with lobbyists.
At least one Republican senator on the committee opposed MILC, possibly dooming the plan, according to farm lobbyists.
Most of the lobbyists said the plan was the best package possible. But the National Association of Wheat Growers and the American Farm Bureau Federation said MILC should be dropped.
"We agreed to $3 billion. This is different," said Darren Coppock of the wheat growers group. He said crop subsidies and land stewardship programs faced $4 billion in cuts to offset the cost of MILC.
"We have strong backing around the country" against paying for MILC by cutting other programs, said the Farm Bureau's Mary Kay Thatcher.
Thatcher told reporters, "we don't believe ... it automatically falls to the Budget Committee. We would hope we could strip out MILC" and still agree on budget cuts.
Chambliss held out the possibility that the Senate Budget Committee or senators unfriendly to the farm sector would decide on USDA cuts if his package failed. "We in agriculture have always stood together," he said.
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