Durbin, Obama criticize House leadership on blocking ag relief

WASHINGTON - Illinois Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin and Barack Obama attacked the House GOP leadership on Tuesday for blocking $1.6 billion in farm aid that they say could help Illinois' and other states' drought-suffering farmers. &#8220I can't for the life of me understand how the House Republican leadership could reject an agricultural disaster assistance program,” Durbin said. &#8220Some of these House leaders are from Midwestern states and they know what's happened.” A spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., defended the move to reject the $1.6 billion proposal, saying that the emergency relief intended in a pending defense spending measure was supposed to be only for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. &#8220We believe Katrina relief funding is meant to help Katrina relief victims, and we should not increase spending to add to the deficit,” Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean said. But Obama said the overall crop losses due to one of the worst droughts in Illinois history are $150 million, and House Republican leaders had found other priorities more important. &#8220The fact is they're spending money; they're just not spending it on family farmers,” Obama said. Bonjean said there was neither a presidential request nor an Illinois congressional delegation request to have the $1.6 billion in the defense bill. Durbin spokesman Joe Shoemaker said Durbin had made his farm-aid wishes known through Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Obama did likewise, spokesman Tommy Vietor said. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., a leading proponent of the $1.6 billion measure, tried to attach it to a pending defense appropriations bill during House-Senate negotiations Sunday, but he said House GOP negotiators held steady in opposition. Durbin, the Senate's second highest-ranking Democrat, said it has been a tradition for Congress to deal with agricultural disasters through federal relief measures for some 70 years, and he had thought he could count on it happening this year as well. Illinois agricultural officials say drought conditions have been among the worst in more than a century and have led to terrible crop yields, with total state production for corn down 17 percent and for soybeans down 12 percent from last year. &#8220I think these funds are absolutely going to be needed to let some farmers survive,” Illinois Agriculture Director Chuck Hartke said. &#8220There are individuals who have suffered greatly - not everyone, I'd be the first to admit.” Hartke suggested that Hastert take a closer look at the issue, saying he was sure that his congressional district, which takes in much of north-central and western Illinois, has perhaps suffered as much from the drought as any area in the state. The proposal for $1.6 billion in emergency aid did not specify how much each state would get, and state agricultural officials have not conducted a study on how much Illinois' farmers could use. The wording of the proposal also was not extensive enough yet to specify how money would be awarded to individual farmers. In years past, a farmer who lost 35 percent of his income would become eligible for an income maintenance payment which could be no more than $80,000, according to Durbin's office. Bonjean did not rule out emergency relief for farm states like Illinois being approved during the remainder of the 109th Congress. &#8220I'd say Illinois farmers are a top priority for us,” Hastert's spokesman said. &#8220We'd work with the Illinois delegation to produce the aid needed.”