House considers shift from crop subsidies

WASHINGTON -- The House is considering a historic shift in farm spending that would switch some crop subsidies into conservation payments that reward farmers for leaving acreage idle or improving environmental practices.

Groups representing grain and cotton growers oppose the proposal, which would primarily benefit dairy-producing regions and states in the East and West that traditionally have received relatively little farm assistance.

An amendment to a $170 billion farm bill that the House was to debate Thursday would shift $19 billion from planned crop subsidies into conservation programs.

The measure "helps preserve open space and protect water quality while helping more farmers -- especially family farmers," said Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y.

Environmentalists were buoyed by a White House statement Wednesday that criticized the farm bill and urged lawmakers to put more money into conservation programs. The administration said the legislation would encourage continued overproduction of crops and benefit the nation's largest farms.

Major farm groups so dislike the conservation proposal that the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, Rep. Larry Combest, R-Texas, has threatened to shelve the bill if the amendment were to be approved.

The bill would guarantee a steady flow of money over the next decade to the grain and cotton growers that have traditionally received most federal farm payments.