An Urban's Rural View

By the time you read this, House Speaker John Boehner may have named the Congressmen who will take part in the House-Senate conference on the farm bill. As I write, he had yet to designate the House conferees.

It seems the speaker has had bigger fish to fry, like funding the government and raising the debt ceiling. Moreover, picking conferees for this farm bill isn't the simple task it's been for farm bills in the past. Boehner has to decide whether to follow tradition and name House Agriculture Committee members or include Tea Party Republicans who will be less inclined to give ground on food-stamp cuts.

Whichever way he chooses, the farm bill faces a similar problem: the House and Senate versions of the farm bill are so far apart on food stamps that it will be difficult to negotiate a compromise that can pass both chambers. It's just a matter of when the problem will arise.

If Boehner sticks with tradition, the conference will be easier but the ultimate passage more difficult. If he goes the Tea Party route, the conferees will struggle to reach agreement.

In addition to being far apart on the size of the cuts ($4 billion over 10 years in the Senate's bill, $40 billion in the House's), each side regards food stamps as a matter of principle. To the liberal Democrats whose votes will be needed when the conference's handiwork reaches the Senate floor, cutting food stamps is an immoral act of snatching food from the mouths of the hungry. To the Tea Party Republicans who are key to the bill's fate on the House floor, the food-stamp program's growth threatens creating a culture of dependence that threatens to turn America into a European welfare state.

Once the House conferees are named and the negotiations begin, the farm bill will have reached the endgame of the legislative process. The only steps left are a conference compromise, final passage in both houses and the president's signature.

But the gap is so wide this time that it's good to keep in mind that the endgame in chess, the game that originated the term endgame, can take dozens of moves. Alas, just because the farm bill is in the endgame doesn't necessarily mean we're close to the end.

urbanity@hotmail.com

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