House OKs Farm Bill $173 Million Over Budget Limit

The House on Thursday passed a $45-billion spending bill for food and farm programs for fiscal 1987, a figure that exceeded the budget target by at least $173 million.

The bill, sent to the Senate on a vote of 329 to 49, restores a long list of programs the Reagan Administration had sought to cut or eliminate, including rural housing programs, rural water and sewer development loans and grants, nutrition aid, soil conservation, the 4-H program, agricultural extension and rural electrification loans.

But it appropriated just $16.8 billion for the Commodity Credit Corp., the money source for farm loans and income subsidies--an amount critics said would soon have to be increased.

“We’ve got to face up to realities and say we’re going to need at least $25 billion for the CCC, and not the $16.8 billion that’s in this bill,” said Rep. Silvio O. Conte (R-Mass.). “This might last us until December, if we’re lucky.”