U.S. HOUSE APPROVES PILOT 0/92 DISASTER PROGRAM
The House of Representatives
approved a bill to enable 1987 winter wheat and feedgrains
farmers hit by midwestern flooding last year to receive at
least 92 pct of their federal income support payments even if
they did not plant.
    The one-time pilot 0/92 program, designed to assist farmers
in Kansas, Oklahoma, Michigan and parts of Missouri, was passed
by a 304-100 vote and sent to the Senate.
    Although the bill includes a narrow version of the 0/92
provision endorsed by the Reagan administration, the U.S.
Agriculture Department withheld its support from the measure.
    USDA said the bill would discourage farmers from buying
crop insurance and fall short of the administration's proposed
broad-scale revision of farm programs.
    The bill would permit winter wheat producers prevented from
planting their 1987 crop last fall to receive 92 pct of the
deficiency payments they would have received.
    To be eligible, winter wheat farmers could not plant a
different crop on that land this spring, although they could
use the land for grazing or to plant hay.
    USDA estimated this provision would save 30 mln dlrs,
largely because of reduced crop forfeitures.
    The bill also would aid about 200 feedgrains producers
along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers who were prevented
from planting crops this year because of residual damage from
last fall's flooding.
    In addition, the measure would require USDA to make full
payment to farmers eligible for emergency assistance approved
by Congress last fall.
    Currently, because claims have outstripped the 400 mln dlrs
in appropriated funds, USDA plans to offer farmers in the
region 74 cents for every dollar in disaster losses.
    The administration said it opposed the bill because, by
expanding the 400 mln dlrs in disaster relief, it would thwart
efforts to encourage farmers to buy crop insurance as an
alternative to federal disaster assistance.
    USDA also said the 0/92 provisions in the bill were
narrower than the administration's proposal to offer the option
to all major commodities and would produce insignificant
savings.
    USDA said the 0/92 option for 1987 winter wheat farmers
would produce a net savings of about 30 mln dlrs, while the
requirement to compensate fully disaster-struck farmers would
cost about 135 mln dlrs, which must be appropriated by
Congress. The feedgrains provision would cost about five mln
dlrs.
    USDA estimated the overall cost of the bill to be 111 mln
dlrs.
    In January the Senate approved a bill that would make 1987
winter wheat farmers eligible for disaster assistance payments.
    But the Senate bill would not offer the 0/92 option to
wheat and feedgrains producers or raise the 400-mln dlr ceiling
on the disaster assistance program.
 Reuter
