Iraq War debate

Sen. Warner hopes

new amendme nt leads
to bipartisan pla n

The Legislative News-Dailyfrom Congressiona l Quarterly

Democrat~

Eye Politics of Farm Bill

Passport backlog, p. 6
This week's Hill schedule, p. 22

Leaders try to balance competing subsidy desires of vulnerable freshmen

PULSE OF
CONGRESS

BY CATHARINE RICHERT

EDITED

CQ STAFF WRITER
When House Speaker
N arrey Pelosi showed up
at the National Farmers Union meeting this
spring, it wasn't just her
speech about the importance of farming that
won over attendees.
The fact that she
stuck around for hours
to dance , eat and talk
onvinced members
'
1 e was committed to Walz,a farm-state lawmaker, said,'l will always make the argument
agriculture policy. By based on what's best for farmers, not what's best for my political party.'
all accounts, everyone- including the
California Democrat- had a blast.
Now the House is knee-deep in writing
a new farm bill (HR 2419), and the outlook
isn't as rosy as it was earlier this year. While
House Agriculture Committee members
squabble over money and plot to fend off
threats from outside the panel to overhaul
agricultural policy, Pelosi and her circle

face a bigger dilemma: The outcome of

this year's farm bill could make or break
the re-election of vulnerable freshman
Democrats.
There are 42 freshmen in the House
this year- including many with rural
constituencies - and nine of them sit
on the farm panel.
Farm Bill continued on page 4

spending package after a series of battles

over individual appropriations measures.
Thekeynumberis 145.
With all435 House members voting, the
White House would need 145 votes to prevent its opponents from mustering a twothirds majority to override a veto.
There are three vacancies;. all are expected to be filled in the next few months.
There are 201 House Republicans. Bush,
aided by a revamped White House lobbying team with ties to the House GOP, has
to convince at least 145 that backing his
position on spending would have a bigger
political payoff than would the local goodies in vetoed funding bills.
Republicans continued on page 5

Bv GREG McDoNALD l..J"'""""U

AMTRAK PLAN TO Outsource Operations

Abroad May Not Be a Money-Saver, After All
Senate appropriators sent a message
to Amtrak this week: Don't send your
customer service operations offshore.
Included in the Senate fiscal 2008
draft Transportation-BUD spending
bill is a provision that would bar Amtrak
from hiring operators based overseas to
staff its reservations line.
In 2006, Amtrak's Republicancontrolled board of directors announced its intention to outsource
its reservations, a move aimed at cutting costs. But the plan drew criticism
from Democratic lawmakers, not to
mention organized labor, and Amtrak
officials promised not to move toward
outsourcing abroad for several years.
That promise wasn't good enough
for Sens. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., and
Patty Murray, D-Wash. They had a provision inserted in the draft bill that
would prohibit Amtrak by law from
engaging in offshore outsourcing.
- Kathryn A. Wolfe

Bush Mends Rift to Prepare for Spending Fight

Bv ALAN K. O rA, CQ STAFF WRITER
Although members of his own party
show signs ofimpatience with some administration policies, President Bush is counting on House Republicans to back him in
an appropriations showdown.
To prepare for battle over spending bills
this summer and fall, the White House is
nurturing relationships that were strained
by a split over the minimum wage and,
ore recently, by the immigration debate.
Bush and House GOP leaders want to
back Democrats into a comer where they
will have to pare back their spending bills
or risk being on the losing side of veto override votes. If the GOP stands firm, the result could be one big fight over an omnibus

BAUCUS BUYING VOTES? Either That or He's

Dreaming, Lott Says
Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus,
D-Mont., has apparently worked a votecounting wonder in recent weeks, boosting support for his $32.1 billion energy tax
Pulse continued on page 6
Volume43, Number 121


Page4

CQToday, Monday, July 16, 2007

Farm Bill continued from page 1

That means leadership will have to
weigh the re-election needs of new
members such as Tim Walz of Minnesota, whose constituency includes
many farmers used to collecting subsidies, against those such as Arizona's
Gabrielle Giffords who would bring
millions more back to her district if
some farm payments were redirected
to conservation programs, according
to a new report by Environmental Defense.
Leadership hopes to strike a deal that
accommodates both types of new members.
"It's a question of creating good public policy that can achieve strong bipartisan support ... sound legislation that
includes reform and a safety net for
America's farmers," said a Democratic
leadership aide.

Heartland Subsidy Politics

Several freshmen Democrats on the
House Agriculture Committee won seats
in districts that President Bush had won
handily two years earlier. The re-election
hopes of three in particular could turn
on preserving the agriculture subsidies
that farmers in their districts enjoy.
Percentage of
vote in 2006

Agricultural
subsidies
2003-05
in millions

52%

$900

51%

$225

61%

$305

TimWalz
Minnesota

NancyBoyda
Kansas

To Cut or Not to Cut

The farm bill could come to the floor at
the end of this month, and the issue most
likely to divide Democrats is whether to cut
subsidies. Leadership is under pressure
to end what critics describe as expensive,
trade-distorting farm payments to the richest farmers.
Some Democrats- such as Ron Kind of
Wisconsin, who touts his own version of the
farm bill -would like to steer the money
spent on subsidies toward conservation, rural development, biofuel and nutrition programs - all priorities of the Democratic
leadership.
House Agriculture Chairman Collin C.
Peterson, D-Minn., also is under pressure
to cut subsidies, largely because his budget
to write the farm bill is tighter than in past
years.
His committee can spend $20 billion
over the measure's baseline of about $226
billion, but only by finding offsets. Leadership says it is working to find funds in other
federal spending programs, but expects
Peterson to redistribute cash within his
own bill.
Peterson now is toying with ways to
limit subsidies; those changes are likely to
come up when the full Agriculture Committee begins debating the bill Tuesday.
But major changes could threaten the
re-election hopes of most freshmen Democrats on the committee, who barely won
Republican-leaning districts where victory

Brad Ellsworth
Indiana
SOURCES: CQPolitics.com. Environmental Working Group

could come down to farm votes.

"There's no swing voter like a farmer,"
said Brent Gattis, a farm lobbyist for Olsson Frank Weeda and a former Republican aid for the House farm panel. While
many farmers fit a conservative profile,
their votes typically come down to money,
Gattis said.
Walz, for example, unseated six-term Republican and subsidy champion Gil Gutknecht by a 5.6 percent margin in 2006. Between 2003 and 2005, soy, corn and dairy
farmers in Walz's district collected roughly
$900 million in subsidies, about 2.6 percent of the national total, according to the
Environmental Working Group's subsidy
database.
Rep. Nancy Boyda, D-Kan., is in a similar
situation. She defeated an incumbent by a
3.5 percent margin and represents farmers
who collected about $225 million in subsidies between 2003 and 2005.
Walz acknowledges the tough spot that
he and his leadership are in, as they strive to
write a bill that balances an overhaul with
subsidies. But he emphasized the impor-

tance of payments to his district.

"I will always make my argument bas
on what's best for farmers, not what's best
for my political party," he said. "It would be
foolish to say this isn't an important piece of
legislation for me."

Redistributing Direct Payments

Pelosi and her circle have been briefed
on Environmental Defense's report,
which showed that redistributing direct
payments -the money farmers get annually based on their acreage and the
type of crop they grow- to conservation
programs would bring more money to
new members' districts in states including California, Pennsylvania, Ohio and
Vermont, where more farmers receive
Agriculture Department payments to
preserve land.
But a senior Democratic aide said voters in these districts -many with broader
constituencies and policy concerns - are
unlikely to turn against a new member
based on farm policy.
Things are different in the districts
represented by Agriculture Committe
members Boyda, Walz and Indiana Derr.
ocrat Brad Ellsworth, where it is crucial
to keep producers of commodity crops
from raising money to unseat them , the
aide said.
"The ones that benefit from the commodity money will throw you out of office," the aide said. "You piss these guys off,
they'll make your life miserable."
Leadership is eager for Peterson to get
a bill out of committee in July- even one
without major changes, which can be left to
floor debate, aides say.
Ultimately, House leaders are most concerned with adding the farm bill to the
llOth Congress' list of accomplishments,
so theyprobablywill have to bend to political realities.
A compromise that supports some version of the classic farm subsidies while also
boosting spending on conservation, nutrition and energy is likely to be the best they
can do this year, aides say.
That would lay the groundwork for
broader changes when Congress writes a
new law five or six years from now, one aid
added.
"We're just trying to set things in motion," the aide said. +

Jonathan Allen contributed to this

story.