Farm Bill That Lifts Federal Curbs Is Signed

President Clinton quietly and reluctantly signed historic farm legislation Thursday that snaps the decades-old link between crop prices and government subsidies.

Although the law rightfully lifts many government controls on farmers, it “fails to provide an adequate safety net for family farmers,” Clinton said from a White House mourning the death of Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown.

Clinton opposed the key farm provisions but said growers need to know what the government has in mind for them as they head to the fields this spring. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman pledged the department would do everything in its power to carry out the provisions of the law.

The law ends government-guaranteed prices for corn, other feed grains, cotton, rice and wheat--a staple of U.S. farm policy since the Depression. Instead, farmers will get guaranteed payments that decline over seven years and an immediate end to most planting controls. The payments will total $36 billion over seven years and account for most of the spending in the $47-billion law.

The administration opposed the bill because it gives farmers a windfall of high payments when skyrocketing market prices mean traditional subsidies would have fallen sharply. Afterward, the guaranteed payments dwindle, giving growers little protection if prices collapse.

Clinton said he would propose legislation next year to restore the safety net.