Senate Rejects Democrats’ Farm Aid Plan

The Senate on Tuesday rejected a Democrat-backed $11-billion bailout of the farm economy in favor of a smaller Republican package. But lawmakers said they hoped to work out a bipartisan compromise later this week.

“There’s bipartisan recognition that there’s a disaster out there,” said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).

The Republican-controlled Senate defeated the Democratic plan, 54 to 44, after Democrats, in a 51-47 vote, narrowly failed to kill the $7-billion GOP emergency farm package.

A final vote on the Republican plan was then put off while Democrats and Republicans tried to find a compromise.

Democrats argued that the GOP plan wouldn’t help all the farmers who needed it, including many drought-stricken growers on the East Coast.

Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman declined to tell the Senate Agriculture Committee how much help he thinks farmers need.

“I don’t want to be in a position of saying you have to spend ‘x’ dollars or ‘y’ dollars,” Glickman said. Pressed as to whether the president would veto the GOP plan, he said, “I’m not looking for a fight, if that’s your bottom-line question.”