Marketplace®

Daily business news and economic stories

Farm lobby sour over budget compromise

The farm lobby is looking to regroup after winding up on the losing end of a Congressional compromise to provide emergency funding for the war in Iraq. John Dimsdale reports.

TEXT OF STORY

SCOTT JAGOW: The first order of business in Congress this week will be to approve $95 billion in emergency spending. The funding is for Iraq and hurricane cleanup on the Gulf coast. Lawmakers somehow kept a lid the amount of money in the final bill and that could mean the death of some pet projects. John Dimsdale reports.

JOHN DIMSDALE: Deficit hawks called the bill a budget buster after Senators tacked on an additional $14 billion for programs from border enhancement to port security to farm assistance. Almost all of the extra spending was dropped in the final compromise.

To keep the bill within the limits set by the White House, negotiators cut nearly $3.5 billion for farmers hit by disasters last year.

DANA BROOKS: There was over 2,000 head of cattle lost due to wildfires in Texas alone.

Dana Brooks, with the American Farm Bureau Federation says agriculture damages from hurricanes are still covered by the bill, but not losses from droughts, fires and floods in other parts of the country.

BROOKS: Only probably a little over 200 counties will qualify for disaster.

Farmers say they’ll be back to ask for additional disaster assistance in next year’s budget.

In Washington, I’m John Dimsdale for Marketplace.

Related Topics

Tagged as:

Latest Episodes

View All Shows
  • Marketplace
    11 hours ago
    25:19
  • Make Me Smart
    16 hours ago
    19:00
  • Marketplace Morning Report
    19 hours ago
    6:55
  • Marketplace Tech
    a day ago
    8:33
  • This Is Uncomfortable
    3 days ago
    56:05
  • Million Bazillion
    24 days ago
    32:45