Farm Bill Update: Lugar-Lautenberg FRESH Amendment Fails

The U.S. Senate just voted down the radical reform measure offered by Senators Lugar and Lautenberg. The vote was 58-37 against. Interestingly enough both of my Senators--Feinstein and Boxer--supported the amendment, but there was no partisan breakdown on the vote. Also, not surprisingly, none of the presidential candidates voted. The votes for and against were all over the place, with Democrats and Republicans both supporting and opposing the amendment. As best I can tell, Senators from farm states, except California, or at least those from states that receive lots of federal farm subsidies for various crops voted against the amendment and those who come from states that receive little in farm subsidies voted against it. Fairly predictable.

The debate continues this week, with the pivotal vote on the Grassley-Dorgan amendment still to come. Also, here's a posting by Ken Cook about the RESCU amendment, offered by Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and others, which would redirect about $2 Billion from crop insurance companies and invest it in conservation, school lunch programs, food stamps and deficit reduction. Cook seems to think that Brown's amendment could pass, thereby further improving the bill as a real reform measure which would boost spending for low-income folks who could use the help buying better food.