Primed for a fight, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum swapped heated accusations about health care, earmarks and federal bailouts Wednesday night in the 20th and possibly final debate of the roller-coaster race for the Republican presidential nomination.Congress typically takes several months to study, debate and refine the renewal of the multiyear farm bill.
“It was sort of a grand march,” Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., said Thursday at a farm bill “listening session” at the Allen County Fairgrounds.
But the 2012 farm bill is at the mercy of a new House-Senate debt-reduction committee that this fall will recommend at least $1.2 trillion in federal spending cuts over the next 10 years.
“What I’m describing today might be a pretty short march,” Lugar told a crowd of 130 people as he laid out the committee’s assignment.
Because of the time crunch, the 12-member panel “might make decisions about agriculture that are not formulated by the ag committees in the House or the Senate, that are not informed by listening and speaking to groups such as this one,” said Lugar, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
“This is a critical moment, and it’s one that has great controversy and great emotion attached to it,” he said.
Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-3rd, said about the committee’s work, “We know it’s coming; we just don’t know how it’s going to play out.”
Congress has approved 16 farm bills since 1933, forum moderator Beth Bechdol said. The 2008 version has spent nearly $60 billion yearly, much of it for nutrition and food programs, including school lunches and food stamps.
Thanks to high prices for crops, increasing land values, technology advances and expanding global markets, American farmers should be able to weather federal funding cuts.
“Agriculture is one of the brightest spots in our economy,” said Stutzman, a freshman member of the House Agriculture Committee. “It’s not without its challenges as well.”
He cited high fuel costs and a regulatory climate that has “made life very difficult for us.”
Stutzman, whose family owns a farm in LaGrange County, and Lugar, whose family owns a farm in Marion County, were largely in agreement on agriculture policy and related topics.
•Both preferred federal “safety net” insurance over direct subsidies as a way to protect producers against drops in commodity prices.
•Stutzman favored ending federal aid for ethanol production. Lugar endorsed the ethanol blender tax credit to encourage development of the fuel made from corn.
•Both said Internet providers, not the government, should pay to extend broadband service to rural areas.
•Both supported the passage of pending free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama.
