Drought aid bill could bring millions

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BY ART HOVEY / Lincoln Journal Star

Both the House and Senate have passed competing versions of a drought relief bill that could route a significant portion of $3 billion to Nebraska farmers and ranchers for losses in 2003 and 2004.

Sen. Ben Nelson, one of the Senate action orchestrators, suggested Thursday total benefits to Nebraska could be in the $130 million to $150million range. "I hope it's at least that and perhaps more," he said.

A 2001-2002 aid package was worth $169 million to the crop sector and about $66 million to Nebraskans who qualified for livestock compensation.

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The House and Senate have passed competing versions of a drought relief bill that could route a significant portion of $3 billion to Nebraska farmers and ranchers for losses in 2003 and 2004. (Eric Gregory / LJS File)

The House and Senate have passed competing versions of a drought relief bill that could route a significant portion of $3 billion to Nebraska farmers and ranchers for losses in 2003 and 2004. (Eric Gregory / LJS File)

Precise estimates will take time, as the House squeezed in action late Wednesday before its adjournment this week and less than a month before a pivotal presidential election.

Third District Rep. Tom Osborne, among the primary pushers for House action, also expressed confidence something meaningful would emerge from circumstances in which the House has settled on a $14 billion approach aimed primarily at hurricane damage in Florida.

Having a hurricane motivation for House action doesn't hurt the cause of a less visible type of weather excess, Osborne said. "Republicans and Democrats certainly are not going to want to show indifference to hurricane damage in Florida and other places."

Under those circumstances, "the Senate could adopt the House language and put it in on an emergency supplemental bill. Probably tomorrow it could happen."

How satisfied is Osborne with results that cleared the House late Wednesday?

"On a scale of 10, I'm about an eight - because the odds of not having any were pretty good."

There was a possibility Thursday that House negotiators would not be able to agree with Senate counterparts who attached drought relief to a homeland security bill earlier.

One key point of agreement, for Nebraska purposes, is allowing agricultural producers to choose 2003 or 2004 as their basis for damage claims.

Drought was a more widespread problem in Nebraska in 2003, and counties must hold drought disaster status for farmers and ranchers to collect.

Brian Wolford, state executive director of the federal Farm Service Agency in Lincoln, said all 93 counties were designated as drought disaster areas last year. This year's count stands at 31, with eight more requests pending in Washington.

This year's list could get longer, Wolford said, even though work is progressing on what is expected to be a record corn crop.

"We do have requests out to probably another 30 counties in Nebraska, just to get kind of an end-of-the-crop-year final survey of potential losses that are out there so we know we've identified all the eligible counties in Nebraska."

One key difference in pending legislation comes from a House decision to offset the cost of agricultural help by taking the money from future soil and water conservation efforts. Osborne prefers a Senate version that carries no offsets.

"My feeling is that a drought is like a hurricane or a flood or a fire," he said. They are all natural disasters that don't call for direct budgetary trade-offs, he said.

Nelson couldn't agree more on the offset point, although among lawmakers "I think there will be a lot of people who believe assistance ought to occur and that drought relief is important enough to go ahead and do it, regardless of the offset."

If that forecast holds, a bill could be on its way to President Bush's desk this weekend. And Nelson said it's likely to be one with some direct targeting of livestock producers, who account for more than half of the state's agricultural receipts.

"The question is when we leave town," he said, "and I don't know the answer to that."

If his forecast doesn't hold, there is also the chance lawmakers will be back at their desks as soon as next week.

"I think the Senate feels so strongly for this that the House would have had a great deal of difficulty not coming up with something to begin with," Nelson said.

Reach Art Hovey at (402) 523-4949 or ahovey@alltel.net.