Dueling Farm Aid Plans on the Table

The Clinton administration offered a $7.1-billion plan to aid farmers, including $2 billion in emergency disaster assistance. Democrats hope to attach the plan to a supplemental spending bill to be debated by Congress. But they face an uphill battle: Republicans have vowed to pass their own $3.9-billion farm package, attaching it to the 1999 agriculture spending bill being worked out by House and Senate negotiators. One sticking point is the administration’s proposal of a one-year boost in rates on commodity marketing loans that would trigger an estimated $5 billion in government payments to growers.