Clinton Signs Agriculture
Aid Bill After 10-Day Delay

WASHINGTON —(AP)— President Clinton signed a record $8.7 billion bailout of the agricultural economy Friday, claiming it showed Congress needs to overhaul the Republican-authored farm program that was supposed to wean growers from government subsidies.

``While these additional funds have been absolutely critical, the very fact that we've needed them points out the underlying flaws in the 1996 farm bill,'' Clinton said.

Clinton also criticized the makeup of the aid package, saying it provides too little assistance for farmers who lost crops to drouth or flooding, while providing money to other growers who don't need it.

Most of the money in the measure, about $6 billion, is intended to help grain, cotton and soybean farmers cope with a second year of low commodity prices. The first checks should get to farmers by Thanksgiving.

About $1.4 billion is targeted for growers with weather-related crop failures and livestock producers who were hurt by this summer's drouth.

North Carolina alone needs $751 million to recover from the damage that Hurricane Floyd did to the state's farms in September, according to the Agriculture Department, and is seeking a supplemental appropriation from Congress. North Carolina farmers will be eligible for about $200 million of the emergency farm aid, the department said.

``We have huge needs,'' North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt said Friday after a meeting with USDA officials.

Clinton said he decided to sign the measure ``because our farmers are facing a true emergency and can't wait.''

``This infusion of assistance may mean the difference between farmers quitting and staying in business another year,'' said Leland Swenson, president of the National Farmers Union.

The legislation also includes $400 million for crop-insurance discounts, $328 million to compensate tobacco producers for falling cigarette sales and $125 million in subsidies for dairy producers.

Additionally, it extends the government's price-support program for dairy products through next year and requires meatpackers to start reporting the prices they pay for cattle and hogs. Livestock producers say that will make it easier for them to bargain with meat processors.

It's the second big farm bailout that Congress has passed in as many years — the 1998 package cost $5.9 billion — and lawmakers will be under pressure to approve another one next year if commodity prices remain low, as economists expect.

U.S. farm exports fell off sharply last year because of economic problems in Asia and Russia and heavy production of grain worldwide.

The 1996 law, popularly known as ``Freedom to Farm,'' ended a Depression-era system of production controls and scaled back on crop subsidies. Farmers were guaranteed an annual ``market transition'' payment, but critics of the law say many producers can't make enough to stay in business with commodity prices as low as they are.

Clinton signed the 1996 bill into law but said at the time that he didn't think it provided an adequate safety net for farmers. He said Friday that Congress needs to ``revise, revamp and improve'' the law but didn't offer any specific proposals.

Whether Congress will make any significant changes in the law, which expires after 2002, remains to be seen. The chairmen of the House and Senate agriculture committees are at odds over whether it should be rewritten. The Senate panel's chairman, Richard Lugar, R-Ind., predicted this week that the law would be left intact.

Republicans said Clinton should have signed the bill sooner. The measure had been on his desk since Oct. 13.

``If he had signed it earlier, farmers could be getting their checks in the coming week,'' said Texas Rep. Larry Combest, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee.

About $5.5 billion will be distributed to farmers by doubling the annual ``market transition'' payments they receive from the government. The administration had pressed Congress to find another way to allocate that money, since recipients of the payments don't even have to plant a crop to get the money.

Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said the first checks would be going to farmers within two to three weeks.

The money is contained in a $69 billion spending bill that will fund operations of the Agriculture Department and the Food and Drug Administration for the 2000 budget year.