FARM BILL CONCLUSION - by Justin Velez-Greenhalgh

...thoughts based on an indepth review of the 8 freshmen democrats sitting on the US House Committee on Agriculture in the 110th Congress

...these thoughts were developed as part of research for Oxfam America in 2007 during the Farm Bill debate

As evidenced by the analysis of the 8 freshmen Congressional members with assignments to the House Committee on Agriculture, proclivity toward revolution and/or sweeping reform of the Farm Bill is in short supply. A number of these freshmen represent rural districts with farmers/farms that have been receiving trade distorting subsidy payments for several years. Politically speaking, many of the freshmen are moderate to conservative, especially with regard to their fiscal points of view – which, ironically, translates to acquiescence to rural economic forces that have long relied on regular payments based on past production, payments that provide protection in low price environments based on past acreage, and/or payments that protect farmers when cash prices are at their lowest levels for any given season (based on current production levels – often resulting in excess farm production).
With the exception of NY Rep. Gillibrand, who represents a district with relatively little reliance on subsidy programs (compared to other of the freshmen studied in this memorandum) and whose constituent farmers tend to produce non-program crops, all other Democratic freshmen on the Agriculture Committee are in a tight position. Some of them are former Republicans – others rose to power as part of the 2006 Democratic sweep (after having unsuccessfully run in their districts during elections cycles where the political air was not moving in the Democrat direction) – still others availed themselves of another theme that hit hard last year, Republicans steeped in legal trouble and public controversy. Disappointing as the political reality might be, House Speaker Pelosi is probably right to protect her freshmen by holding off from igniting the light of reform fires if she hopes to continue working with those individuals in Congress in January 2009 – and also if she hopes to remain the House Speaker, as opposed to the Congresswoman from the 8th Congressional district of California.

Unfortunately, Raymond Offenheiser, Oxfam’s President, couldn’t have been more apropos when he said, “It's a sad day when the Democratically led Agriculture Committee is a better friend to wealthy special interests than the Bush administration." Even the Democrats who gained seats promising protection for the small farms and farmers, the average worker, the solidly middle-class American citizens, find themselves unable (perhaps unwilling) to plant the seeds of change when rich, powerful interests (collecting what amounts, in many cases, to rural corporate welfare) can easily shop for a compliant, submissive Congressional candidate across the political aisle.