Farm Bill Update: Dorgan-Grassley Amendment Fails

The vote was 56 to 43.

A majority of the senate voted in favor of setting a payment limit to farmers, but not enough to surpass the parliamentary hurtle of 60 votes required to add the amendment to the bill. Because of arcane senate budget rules that subjected this amendment to a "point of order," Senators Dorgan and Grassley needed a super-majority to add their subsidy reform measure to the bill. Southern senators of both parties, most Republican senators and a handful of Democratic senators from other states stopped this reasonable reform from passing by voting "no."

Read Ken Cook's skewering of the senate, especially the Democrats, here.

Interestingly, all the Democratic presidential candidates voted for the amendment. Senator McCain was the only senator who did not vote, which is too bad, because he would likely have been counted as the 57th vote in favor of the amendment. Senators Feinstein and Boxer also supported the amendment.

My conclusion is that despite their spirited effort, reform advocates lacked the political muscle to counteract the political power of agribusiness and other special interest opponents of reform. Most members never seriously feared voting against reform. Looking ahead to 2012, it seems to me that the most effective way to ensure real, substantive reform will be to assemble a grassroots coalition that will demand that members of Congress embrace real farm subsidy reform or face consequences at the ballot box.

Can we make that happen?