Triple A
19th June 2011, 14:52
WASHINGTON – The Republican-led House rejected bipartisan attempts to reduce farm subsidies Thursday and passed a food and farm spending bill that makes deep cuts in food aid at home and abroad.
The bill, which provides $17.3 billion for the day-to-day operations of the Agriculture Department and the Food and Drug Administration, won approval by a 217-203 vote.
It would cut the Women, Infants and Children program, which offers food aid and educational support for low-income mothers and their children, by $868 million, or 13 percent from the current level. An international food assistance program that provides emergency aid and agricultural development would drop by more than $450 million, one-third of the program's budget.
Critics of farm subsidies did score one victory as the House voted to block a $147 million annual payment to Brazil's cotton industry. The United States agreed to make that payment last year after Brazil's industry complained to the World Trade Organization that Washington unfairly was subsidizing U.S. cotton farmers. The United States lost the WTO case and agreed to make the payments to Brazil as a settlement.
Democratic Rep. Ron Kind, a Wisconsin Democrat who is a frequent critic of domestic farm subsidies, offered the amendment, saying the U.S. should lower domestic cotton subsidies to comply with the WTO instead of paying the settlement to Brazil. Kind was joined by fiscal conservatives who agreed the Brazil payment is wasteful.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110616/ap_on_re_us/us_congress_farm_spending_4
Subsidize the rich and cut food for the poor.;)
The bill, which provides $17.3 billion for the day-to-day operations of the Agriculture Department and the Food and Drug Administration, won approval by a 217-203 vote.
It would cut the Women, Infants and Children program, which offers food aid and educational support for low-income mothers and their children, by $868 million, or 13 percent from the current level. An international food assistance program that provides emergency aid and agricultural development would drop by more than $450 million, one-third of the program's budget.
Critics of farm subsidies did score one victory as the House voted to block a $147 million annual payment to Brazil's cotton industry. The United States agreed to make that payment last year after Brazil's industry complained to the World Trade Organization that Washington unfairly was subsidizing U.S. cotton farmers. The United States lost the WTO case and agreed to make the payments to Brazil as a settlement.
Democratic Rep. Ron Kind, a Wisconsin Democrat who is a frequent critic of domestic farm subsidies, offered the amendment, saying the U.S. should lower domestic cotton subsidies to comply with the WTO instead of paying the settlement to Brazil. Kind was joined by fiscal conservatives who agreed the Brazil payment is wasteful.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110616/ap_on_re_us/us_congress_farm_spending_4
Subsidize the rich and cut food for the poor.;)