An Urban's Rural View

In the days before air conditioning, anyone who could get out of sultry, sweaty Washington in August did. Congressmen were no exception. The August recess dates back to the early days of the republic.

In 1970, responding to requests from young solons whose families wanted a predictable vacation, Congress made it official in the Legislative Reorganization Act. Of all the many breaks our Congressmen take each year the August recess is the only one enshrined in law.

This year they left town for the month without finishing a farm bill. When they return Sept. 9 there will only be nine legislative days left before the current farm bill expires Sept. 30. During those nine days the House must pass its food-stamps bill, the two houses must hammer out their differences in conference and both houses must pass whatever the conferees come up with. With all the other important business on Congress's plate, it will be tight.

Before you grumble about lazy legislators taking those who produce their food for granted, though, consider this: The House and Senate are so far apart on food stamps they might have come up empty handed even if they'd stayed in session.

Only 24 Democrats supported the House Agriculture Committee's proposed farm bill, which called for $20 billion in food-stamp cuts over 10 years. Between those cuts and some poison-pill floor amendments on food stamps, that first House farm bill didn't pass. In the Democratic-majority Senate, the farm bill would not have passed 66-27 as it did without 18 Republican votes; several Democratic senators said no to $4 billion in food-stamp cuts.

If that's the reaction to $4 billion, just think how hard it will be to land Democratic votes in either chamber if the Republican-controlled House follows through on threats of a $40 billion cut.

That, says the ranking House Democrat on ag issues, Collin Peterson, would be "a political messaging bill to nowhere in an effort to try and placate the extreme right wing of their party." Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow has concluded that the House's majority floor leader, Eric Cantor, doesn't want a farm bill.

Maybe. Or maybe Cantor just doesn't have the votes for any kind of food-stamp legislation that could come close to becoming law. Many of the House GOP freshmen and sophomores don't seem to notice that their plan to shrink the government can't succeed as long as Democrats control the Senate and the White House.

A grizzled veteran Washington reporter I knew back in the 1970s liked to say that every day the Congress isn't in session, the republic is safer. Unfortunately for farmers, the farm bill this year isn't safe whether Congress is in session or not.

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