Congress passes farm bill

Press, 20 December 1985, Page 6

Congress passes farm bill

NZPA-Reuter Washington

The two Houses of the United States Congress have approved and sent to the White House a five-year measure to support America’s hard-pressed farmers at a cost of more than SUSISO billion ($3OO billion). Key law-makers said that they expect the President, Mr Ronald Reagan, will sign it, although the White House has avoided making any public commitment on the legislation. The Department of Agri-

culture estimated that the bill— which includes food stamps and child nutrition programmes — could cost as much as SUSI6O billion ($320 billion). The Administration’s estimate was SUSI 69 billion ($338 billion). The complicated measure lowers some price supports to promote exports by bringing prices of American crops down to international levels to offset the highlyvalued dollar. It makes up that money with increased subsidies, in effect paying farmers to

take less money for their crops. “This is a significant step toward American farmers regaining competitiveness in world markets,” said Senator Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican. The bill was approved after a year of bitter debate between the Reagan Administration and congressmen who insisted that farmers must continue to receive Government support to survive record crops, large surpluses, lower prices, and a weaker world market.

The Reagan Administration got sharply lower price supports for main commodities such as wheat, corn, soya beans, and cotton. Agricultural analysts said that this reform may allow American crop prices to stimulate exports that declined from SUS 44 billion ($BB billion) in 1981 to SUS 29 billion ($5B billion) this year.

To offset the lower mar-S-ices, the bill calls for billion ($lO4 billion) to be spent in subsidies and supports over the next three years.