House Passes Farm Bill

On July 27, 2007 the U.S. House of Representatives (the House) passed its version of the farm bill by a 231-191 vote after a brief consideration on the House floor. As Collin Peterson (D-MN), the Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, stated, there is plenty in the bill to make some people happy and plenty to make some people unhappy — which he believes indicates it is a pretty good bill. In fact, as the bill was reported from the Agriculture Committee, it did enjoy strong support from committee members of both parties. However, after the committee reported the bill to the House floor, controversy flared over additional funding for the nutrition programs that will result from imposing a tax on certain foreign-owned companies with U.S. subsidiaries. The House leadership decided it needed to increase the funding for nutrition programs to gain the support of more liberal members to fend off an amendment by Representatives Ron Kind (D-WI) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ) that would have