Clinton Vows To Veto Spending
Bill That Covers Ag Disasters

WASHINGTON —(AP)— President Clinton said Tuesday he had "no choice but to veto" a $4.1 billion Republican farm aid plan because it doesn't help farmers enough.

"While this agriculture bill provides some help to farmers, it simply does not do enough," Clinton said. "If Congress insists on sending me an agriculture bill that fails to respond fully to the needs of America's farmers, then I will have no choice but to veto the bill.'"

Senate Republicans passed the $60 billion overall agriculture spending bill 55-43 Tuesday even though Clinton had admonished them over the weekend "not to leave town" before adding more money to the aid package attached to the larger bill. The House had passed the bill Friday.

Clinton and the Democrats have pushed a $7.3 billion plan that would rely mostly on giving farmers an extra $5 billion through a program that subsidizes growers when commodity prices fall below set levels.

The vote for the smaller GOP package is narrow enough to prevent Senate Republicans from overriding a veto and means there may be some room to negotiate a compromise, Democrats said.

"We're going to hang tough," said Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn.

"The number of votes gives us the leverage," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.

The impasse means the overall agriculture spending bill is on hold until lawmakers reach an agreement, which must come soon. GOP leaders have said they hope to complete all of their spending work by this weekend, when Congress is scheduled to adjourn.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said if the president did veto the bill, Republicans would try to attach it to an omnibus spending bill with other appropriations measures.

"The president is willing to put at risk those programs that are funded in this bill to accommodate the interests of a few," Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., said during debate Tuesday.

"To veto the bill creates more delay, more uncertainty," said Cochran, who chairs the agriculture appropriations subcommittee. "Farmers need help now."

Republicans claim the Democratic proposal is a throwback to the days before the 1996 farm law when subsidies were tied to crop production.

Instead, the GOP package offers a mix of disaster relief and about $1.7 billion in direct payments to farmers. Farmers in the upper Midwest would get about $675 million to help with a series of crop failures over the past five years.

American farmers are facing their worst financial crisis in more than a decade. The government predicts farm income will drop nearly 16 percent this year to $42 billion.

The farm bill contains a provision that would allow a one-year waiver of sanctions on India and Pakistan, imposed following nuclear tests by those nations. A waiver would open the way for U.S. grain sales to the two countries, but it was unclear what would happen to that provision if the main bill is vetoed and some portions wind up being in an omnibus spending bill.