Democratic moves to change key parts of the recently enacted farm bill were rejected by Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee yesterday after intense lobbying by big farmers and commodity groups, but the session revealed widespread dissatisfaction with the high-priced measure.

In an unusually stark use of majority power, Republicans on the committee's agriculture panel threatened to strip Ohio-related projects from an annual spending bill if Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) offered an amendment that would have lowered the maximum amount the government can pay individual farmers from $360,000 to $275,000.

Kaptur, the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations agriculture subcommittee, said it was "reprehensible that I'm faced with this choice" between her amendment and hurting her constituents. She said the $32 million in savings from the lower payment limits could have been shifted to food safety and a program that helps the poor and elderly shop at local farmers markets.

But to block her, Republicans readied an amendment that would have deleted "every single project that was hers alone" in a $74.3 billion measure funding agricultural programs in fiscal 2003, said a GOP Appropriations staffer. He said the list of 26 projects included grants for the Agriculture Research Service station at Wooster, Ohio, along with grants to universities and county extension offices.

The issue of payment limitations was hotly contested between the House and Senate during this spring's negotiations over the farm bill. The measure before the committee yesterday is the annual spending bill, separate from the seven-year authorizing legislation that President Bush signed in May.

Last spring, Senate Democrats, with a strong base among populist-inclined grain farmers in the upper Midwest, pushed through a $275,000 limit on government payments. But in the final version, the GOP-controlled House won higher limits and major loopholes for southern rice and cotton interests.

Yesterday, Rep. Henry Bonilla (R-Tex.), who chairs the Appropriations agriculture subcommittee, charged that Democrats were trying to rewrite the farm bill and breaking faith with farmers.
"It would have been a blatant attempt to say the farm bill's null and void. This was about respecting the process and the chairman," said a GOP aide.

Dozens of farm organizations, ranging from the American Farm Bureau Federation to the American Sheep Industry Association, opposed the change.

Nevertheless, Kaptur's charge that the farm bill spread its benefits too narrowly to big grain, soybean, cotton and rice farmers in a few states clearly resonated with some lawmakers in both parties.

Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa) said the farm bill's largess to big farmers is pushing up land prices in his state. That, he said, was making it more difficult for young farmers to buy land and more costly to small family farmers who rent acreage.

Yesterday, an amendment to shift $250 million from traditional farm programs to vegetable, fruit and nut producers who currently receive little federal aid was narrowly defeated, 31 to 29.

The amendment was offered by Rep. Maurice D. Hinchey (D), who represents New York's financially stressed apple growers. Committee aides said the closeness of the vote signified growing support in the House for spreading the benefits of farm programs more widely.

The committee's approval of the agriculture spending yesterday came as the pace quickened on key spending legislation. Today, House and Senate conferees are scheduled to complete work on a long-stalled $30 billion supplemental appropriations bill to fund the Pentagon and homeland defense over the next few months.

A Senate Appropriations panel yesterday cleared an $18.5 billion bill funding the Treasury Department and other agencies next year. The bill would provide a 4.1 percent pay increase for federal workers in 2003, the same as the House version.

A separate bill approved yesterday by the full Senate Appropriations Committee provides for a 9.1 percent pay increase for the U.S. Capitol Police, to aid recruitment and stem departures to higher-paying law enforcement organizations.

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