Emerson opts out of negotiations on ag, medicine funding

WASHINGTON -- As congressional negotiators finalize a huge end-of-session spending bill, they will be doing it without Republican Rep. Jo Ann Emerson.

Emerson is the only member of the House farm spending panel not serving on the House-Senate conference committee that is crafting the enormous compromise spending measure, which will combine several separate spending bills.

Asked why she would not serve, Emerson said she took herself off the conference committee.

"The problem was that when I had to vote on those specific issues, it would be hypocritical for me to vote against my own position," Emerson said.

It is unusual for a lawmaker to bow out of conference committee negotiations, particularly when the measure is important to his or her district.

The compromise bill will include $74 billion in spending for agriculture, nutrition and the Food and Drug Administration, important issues in Southeast Missouri.

As a member of the House Appropriations Committee farm spending subcommittee, Emerson played a significant role in writing the House version of that agricultural spending bill.

It would allow people to buy lower-cost prescription drug imports from Canada, an effort on which Emerson has led her colleagues.

Still, Republican leaders have successfully turned back these efforts, most recently by keeping a drug import provision out of the new Medicare prescription drug bill. Republicans, the Bush administration and the pharmaceutical industry oppose the effort because they say safety cannot be guaranteed.