Congress Sends Bush Veto-Proof Farm Bill

The U.S. Senate sent the new farm bill to President Bush Thursday, passing it by a veto-proof vote of 81-15.

The bill was passed by the House Wednesday by a margin of 318-106. The overwhelming vote of support in both houses of Congress virtually ensures that the bill will soon become law, despite the Bush administration's veto threats.

All three of the senators currently running for president – Barack Obama, D-Ill.; Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.; and John McCain, R-Ariz. – skipped Thursday's vote on the bill. McCain has publicly stated that he would veto the bill if he were president, placing him squarely in the small minority of Congress that opposed the bill.

Officially titled the "Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008," the farm bill covers a wide range of agricultural, conservation and nutrition programs. The Congressional Budget Office has reported that the bill will cost $288.97 billion over five years.

One of the most contentious issues that has sparked criticism of farm programs involves subsidy payments to wealthy landowners under the commodity title of the farm bill. The new bill will eliminate the "three-entity rule," a loophole in the previous farm bill that allowed individuals to claim payments under three different corporations or entities. Under the new bill, all payments will be made directly to individuals only. Adjusted gross income caps were included that will exclude from farm program payments anyone who has made more than $500,000 a year in non-farm income. Anyone with farm income that exceeds $750,000 will no longer be allowed to receive direct payments.

Mandatory country-of-origin labeling of retail food products will, after many years of delay, finally be implemented. The labeling provision was originally passed in the 2002 farm bill, but was never implemented by the Bush administration. Several changes to the law will allow it to be fully implemented later this year.

The bill will also change the law regarding the shipment of state-inspected meat products. It will authorize interstate shipment of meat that has been processed in state-inspected facilities, a change that is seen as a major victory for small, independent processors of specialty meat products.

More than two-thirds of the spending in the entire bill will go toward food stamps and other nutrition assistance programs. Approximately 16 percent will go to commodity, crop insurance and disaster programs. All of the approximately $10.4 billion in "new money" that was added to the bill over the previous 2002 farm bill was used to increase nutrition programs. A program to provide fresh fruits and vegetables to schools will be expanded under the bill, taking the program to schools all around the country.

Conservation and environmental protection programs will also get a big boost. Approximately $4.4 billion in new funding has been authorized for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and the Conservation Stewardship Program over the next 10 years.

Two all-new titles in the farm bill were also added, one covering livestock and the other covering specialty crops and organic agriculture.

The bill will authorize significant new spending, more than $1 billion, to provide incentives to expand the production of biofuels from crop residues and cellulosic sources other than grain.