Tea Party groups take aim at farm bill, Republicans

Fredreka Schouten | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — In the aftermath of the partial government shutdown, some Tea Party-aligned groups that helped push a conservative revolt in Congress over President Obama's health care law are readying for Round 2.

Their top target: the sweeping legislation that will set federal farm policy for years to come. Next week, a group of lawmakers will meet to begin hashing out differences between the Senate and House versions of the farm bill. Conservative groups, such as Heritage Action for America, are lobbying to jettison any compromise, saying neither version does enough to slash taxpayer subsidies to agribusiness.

"You are using taxpayer money to subsidize industries that are making record profits," said Dan Holler of Heritage Action. His group is urging lawmakers to approve a one-year extension of existing farm policies rather "than locking in bad law for another three to five years," he said.

The latest confrontation over the farm measure underscores the rift between the pro-small-government Tea Party faction of the Republican Party and the business community. Grassroots Tea Party activists, whose opposition to the health care law helped fuel the budget fight that led to a 16-day partial government shutdown this month, say they won't back down from efforts to reduce government spending and will make their displeasure known in next year's midterm elections.

"We think gridlock is a good thing," said Diane Cox, a Tea Party activist from Valdosta, Ga., who is one of 6,000 Heritage Action "sentinels" who pushed to defund the Affordable Care Act and is closely watching developments on the farm bill. "It's called the balance of powers."

"I don't think politicians understand that we are serious about stopping wasteful government spending," said Cox, 68. "We are going to have to bring a few more of them home."

Already this year, skirmishes over spending have delayed efforts to complete a new, five-year farm law, now more than a year overdue. In the past, farm bills enjoyed bipartisan support, in part because the measures paired pro-farm policies with continued support for food stamps, guaranteeing "yes" votes from lawmakers representing both rural and urban areas.

After rejecting an earlier version of the farm bill in June, the GOP-led House broke the legislation into two pieces, first approving a chunk that dealt with farm subsidies along with other agriculture policies and then passing the food-stamp portion. The House-passed bill cuts food stamps by roughly $40 billion during the next decade, dropping benefits to 3 million people.

The Senate measure cuts far less from food stamps — about $4 billion over 10 years.

Both versions eliminate $5 billion in subsidies known as "direct payments" to farmers, long criticized because they pay certain types of farmers the same amount each year regardless of need or whether they plant crops.

Conservative advocacy groups want more. They are challenging an array of provisions, including taxpayer-funded subsidies for crop insurance.

"If you are a Republican and you say social welfare programs are wasteful, you are hypocritical if you turn around and give subsidies to corporations," said Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, a group backed by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.

The group was not among those that urged lawmakers to defund Obamacare during the recent budget showdown, but it has made repealing the health care law among its top priorities. The group also wants deeper cuts to the food stamp program, which has grown dramatically. More than 47 million people now receive food stamps, up from 21 million a decade earlier.

Mary Kay Thatcher, a lobbyist for the American Farm Bureau, said the House and Senate measures contain "significant reform."

"The elimination of direct payments is a big deal," she said. "It might not be enough reform for Heritage, but it's real reform."

She said the measure has drawn conservative attention, in part, because so few bills have any chance of winning approval in a gridlocked Congress. "You have more Tea Party members in the House," she said. "There are more reformers, and they want to reform whatever comes along."

What happens next will be a test of the clout of the Tea Party, derided by the party establishment for helping to engineer a budget showdown that shuttered parts of the government and threatened a debt default without winning any significant concessions on the health care law.

So far, top Republicans and Democrats on the agriculture panel appear eager to move forward on a compromise. Last week, President Obama said the farm bill was one of three priorities for Congress to resolve before year's end. The others are a budget agreement and an overhaul of the nation's immigration system.

Even as they sound alarms on the farm measure, conservative advocacy groups say they do not plan to retreat from efforts to dismantle the health care law. FreedomWorks, another Tea Party-aligned group, wants to force lawmakers to vote on a measure that would eliminate the employer contribution on health care for members of Congress and is urging more votes on measures that would delay the health law's mandate that uninsured Americans buy health insurance starting next year or pay a fine.

On Wednesday, meanwhile, Americans for Prosperity launched a $2 million advertising campaign highlighting four vulnerable House members over their votes on the health care law. It also is working to keep states from expanding Medicare, the government's health-insurance system for the poor.

"Repealing Obamacare is a long-term effort," Phillips said.