Steve Quayle News Alerts

August 1, 2002
By CHRISTOPHER THORNE, Associated Press Writer

And the drought has spread, now encompassing 13 states. This is the second straight year that drought has withered crops and grazing land in the West, but farmers elsewhere are also starting to see its impact.

Last year, Michigan's cherry crop was so abundant the surplus was bought up by the federal government. This year, the cherry trees are bare, said Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.

Even as farmers and ranchers are hoping for rain, Congress is leaving for its August break without agreement on how to address the drought, which has spread from Western states such as Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming and Colorado into Nebraska, Kansas and New Mexico.

Parts of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina are also seeing record lows of stream flow, prompting the U.S. Geological Survey to mark them as drought states.

Senate Democrats are advancing a $5 billion emergency aid package for farmers and ranchers who are losing crops and livestock. Republicans are pushing an alternative that would cut that amount almost in half.

The Senate Agriculture Committee adjourned Thursday after its chairman, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said lawmakers were too far apart to agree on legislation.

Harkin said giving lawmakers time in their home states to see the drought damage firsthand may persuade them to support the $5 billion bill co-authored by Montana senators Max Baucus, a Democrat, and Conrad Burns, a Republican.

"I think there may be a change in attitude when they come back," Harkin said.

The disaster assistance bill will be the committee's first order of business when it returns to Washington next month, he said.

Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., the committee's top Republican, said he wants to wait until September to see how many farmers file losses with their federally backed crop insurance. That, he said, will give lawmakers a better understanding of how much aid is needed.

The Baucus-Burns bill, co-sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and Sen. Tim Johnson, both D-S.D., would make the aid an emergency measure, beyond the $190 billion allocated for the 10-year life of the farm bill signed into law in May.

The Bush administration, and many Republican lawmakers, don't want the added spending. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., offered a $2.9 billion aid package funded with appropriations taken from other parts of the farm bill.

The Roberts bill would require farmers to file for losses incurred either this year or last year, but not both. And it would require farmers and ranchers to sign up for federally backed crop insurance.

Roberts said the Baucus-Burns bill was too expensive and would not win the support of enough lawmakers to pass, a view echoed by other Republicans including Sen. Craig Thomas , R-Wyo.

"I do think we have to be a little bit in control of the costs of this thing," Thomas said.

The House has its own version of drought legislation, drafted by Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., Rep. Tom Osborne, R-Neb., and Rep. John Thune, R-S.D.

That bill is similar to what Senate Republicans want in that it orders the aid to be paid with money already slated for farm programs, instead of new appropriations.

On the Net:
U.S. Geological Survey: http://water.usgs.gov/waterwatch/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32797-2002Aug1.html