Ag Groups Press For Tax Law, Farm Program Reforms Delegations Heading For Washington, D.C., To Lobby For Changes

David Roseberry should be preparing his Benton County wheat farm for spring seeding and summer fallow.

But instead the president of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers is preparing to meet the men and women who hold the power to keep him farming in the future.

Beginning March 11, Roseberry and 15 other WAWG delegates will fly to Washington, D.C., for a five-day lobbying effort on Capitol Hill.

Their journey follows on the heels of trips made last month by the Moscow-based USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council and the Washington State Farm Bureau.

Carrying their own “contract with Congress,” the wheat growers will push for reform of tax laws and farm programs. Their suggestions are designed to cut the budget but also keep farm operations - and certain federal subsidies for agriculture - alive.

“You can argue with them about how changes are going to hurt us, but it’s easier to argue how it will hurt them,” said Roseberry, a newcomer to political lobbying.

Dozens of Inland Northwest farmers fly to Washington, D.C., every year, but 1995 is more important than most. The congressional farm bill is up for renewal. The legislation will establish federal farm programs and their budgets for the next five years.

Getting money out of Congress will be especially difficult this round. With deficit-reduction as its battle cry, the Republican-controlled Congress is poised to make deep cuts in farm programs, which provide some farmers up to a third of their annual income.

“The mood is cut, cut, cut,” said Tim McGreevy, executive director of the pea and lentil council and its 1,000 Pacific Northwest members.

McGreevy returned Feb. 10 from a four-day lobbying effort to the Capitol. He and three others met with members of the Washington and Idaho congressional delegation and key USDA officials to relay concerns about proposed cuts in overseas marketing programs and plant breeding research and excessive government regulation.

Politicians sympathize with farmers’ need for financial support, but the $12 billion that taxpayers annually spend to support subsidies for less than 2 million farmers is an inviting target for the budget axe.

The sharpest axe is carried by Sen. Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, who wants to save $3.4 billion by eliminating the Export Enhancement Program. The program subsidizes huge sales of Northwest wheat to foreign flour mills and nations.

“He’s taking a bold stance, but these cuts are very reasonable,” said Minda Markle, spokeswoman for Lugar’s agriculture committee.

Wheat farmers disagree. That’s why lobbying trips are critical to their strategy to persuade politicians to vote against such proposals.

“It helps our credibility to have 15 people sitting in the room to tell them what’s going on,” Roseberry said. “Otherwise congressmen could make huge mistakes from lack of information.”

Steve Appel, a Whitman County wheat farmer and president of the Washington Farm Bureau, returned Thursday from a week of congressional lobbying with 30 other bureau members.

“It doesn’t matter if they’re Ds or Rs, this is a great opportunity to win some to our side,” he said.