Washington, D.C. – The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today released a statement from CCAGW President Thomas A. Schatz reacting to the defeat of the “Fairness in Farm and Food Policy Amendment:”

           “The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is profoundly disappointed with last night’s vote in the U.S. House of Representatives, in which both Democrats and Republicans demonstrated their overwhelmingly bipartisan opposition to authentic reform of U.S. farm policy.

            By a vote of 309-117, the House defeated the “Fairness in Farm and Food Policy Amendment,” which was the only opportunity for comprehensive reform of the unfair and counterproductive crop subsidy system being perpetuated in H.R. 2419, the 2007 Farm Bill.

            By an almost 4-1 margin, Republican members of the House made it clear that, when it comes to agriculture, they are not interested in either the free market or giving much-needed relief to taxpayers.  The only thing that most rural Republican members appear to care about is preserving their ability to continue to dump excessive amounts of money on their wealthiest farmers.  While acting out of self-interested greed is often the norm on Capitol Hill, it was disappointing to see so many non-rural Republicans go along with this phony largesse.

            No less disappointing is the fact that Democratic members of the House voted by more than a 2-1 margin against reform.  Although the numbers of rural Democratic members of Congress is quite small compared to the number of rural Republicans, they proved to be just as committed to filling the bank accounts of their wealthiest constituents.  So much for their claims to be for the ‘little guy’.  Liberal, urban Democrats also demonstrated that their public support for agriculture reform has been nothing more than empty rhetoric.  Despite all their talk about wanting to end subsidies to rich farmers, when push came to shove, the Democratic leadership was able to buy them off rather easily with nickels and dimes for their special causes.

            CCAGW hopes that when it comes to reform, the Senate will do a better job.  And, if not, we hope that President Bush has the courage to stick by his threat to veto legislation without reform.”        

            The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.