Word: droughts
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WASHINGTON--Both houses of Congress overwhelmingly approved some $6 billion in aid for drought-stricken farmers yesterday after scaling back provisions for special assistance to milk producers and ethanol fuel makers...
...This is a most dangerous and wrongheaded precedent," said Rep. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.). He scoffed at claims that dairy producers need the price increase to offset the increased cost of feed resulting from the drought, saying cattle and sheep ranchers and poultry producers are not getting anything similar in the way of a subsidy...
Under Daschle's plan, ethanol makers would be able to purchase the corn at 110 percent of the government's acquisition price. Much of the corn in Agriculture Department bins now was acquired long before the drought sent crop prices skyrocketing...
That will be little consolation for the farmers whose crops have been wiped out. Responding to their plight, Washington is rushing to pour money where too little water has fallen. A pair of drought-relief bills designed to distribute at least $7 billion is moving through Congress. Farmers who lose more than 35% of their normal crop would be reimbursed for 65% of their lost revenues. A ceiling of $100,000 would be put on the disaster benefits so that large corporate farms would not benefit disproportionately from the legislation. Drought relief has the full support of President Reagan...
Secretary of Agriculture Richard Lyng asserted that the proposed legislation would be "expensive, but something we can afford." The cost would in fact be offset by savings in the $17.7 billion farm-subsidies program already approved in the 1988 budget. As the drought tightens supplies and pushes up commodity prices, the Government will not have to pay out as much in price-support subsidies. In effect, Congress is recycling price supports in the form of disaster relief. The legislation, claim its supporters, would not add a penny to the Government's budget deficit...