News Coverage
NYT: Senate Advances Farm Bill
Published June 8, 2012
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday voted to advance a farm bill that will set the nation’s nutrition and agriculture policy for the next five years.
The vote was 90 to 8. With the vote, the Senate will begin about a week of debate to consider the bill and amendments, according to Senator Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan, who is chairwoman of the Agriculture Committee and managing the legislation.
The bill is expected to cost about $969 billion over the next 10 years, but cuts overall spending by $23 billion. The cuts mainly reflect the elimination of direct payments to farm landowners, which cost about $5 billion a year, and cuts about $4.5 billion over 10 years from the food-stamp program. In a statement, the Obama administration said that while it supported the new farm bill, it opposed cuts to the food-stamp program and wanted deeper cuts to farm programs, including crop insurance.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/08/us/politics/farm-bill-advances-in-sena...