U.S. Senate Agriculture Committeechairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said it would be impossible to
cut two billion dlrs from the fiscal 1988 agriculture budget as
proposed by Senate Budget Committee chairman Lawton Chiles
(D-Fla.)
    "I don't know how we could possibly absorb two billion dlrs
of cuts without enormous disruptions," Leahy told the National
Cattlemen's Association.
    Chiles has proposed making unspecified policy changes that
would trim two billion dlrs from farm income and price support
programs in the fiscal year beginning next October.
    Leahy said such cuts would be impossible, that one billion
dlrs in cuts would be "darn near impossible" and that a spending
freeze would be difficult.
    Leahy said Congress would have to provide "some money" for
the Farm Credit System, but that a "wholesale bailout" would not
be forthcoming.
    "We may need changes in (the system's) procedures but we
will not let the system go belly up or simply become another
bank," he said.
    A task force composed of Leahy and Sens. David Boren
(D-Okla.), Rudy Boschwitz (R-Minn.) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.)
is working on a proposal for assisting the Farm Credit System
that Leahy said should be ready shortly after Congress's Easter
recess, set for April 13 through 20.
    Leahy said his panel would consider changes in the wheat
and feedgrains programs this year, including a proposal to
establish mandatory production controls.
    However, he said a bill offered by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)
and Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) would probably not pass
Congress as presently written.
    A bill to provide emergency disaster assistance to
midwestern grain producers, already passed by the House, may
not be considered by the Senate for another 10 days because
members have lined up as many as two dozen amendments costing
billions of dollars, he said.
 Reuter
