Leaf Process Nears End

Source from:  BY PETER HARDIN TIMES-DISPATCH WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT 10/11/2004

Senate expected to pass tax overhaul that includes buyout plan The Senate is expected to follow the lead of the House and endorse a $10.1 billion buyout of tobacco farmers today. As the Senate worked yesterday to complete end-of-session business, it heard debate over a corporate-tax overhaul that includes the proposed end of the government's tobacco-allotment and price-support program. Because critics of the bill used delaying procedural tactics, a vote to limit debate was set for today, and a final Senate vote could follow not long afterward, congressional officials said. If the Senate passes the bill, approved by the House on Thursday, it would go to President Bush for his signature. The White House has signaled Bush's support. Backers of the bill have spoken confidently of securing enough votes to limit debate and then pass the bill. Sen. George Allen, R-Va., spoke enthusiastically Friday about the buyout's prospects and importance. "This is an historical success that is going to have a tangible positive impact on the lives of a lot of these good, hard-working families in rural communities," Allen said. In debate yesterday, supporters of the corporate-tax overhaul touted it as a stimulant for jobs. It would "aid our manufacturing sector, remove tariffs off our farmers' backs, create jobs for our workers and place the Senate back on its footing to . . . move legislation that benefits American working men and women," said Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, Senate Finance Committee chairman. But detractors denounced the decision by House and Senate conferees to omit a Senate-passed plan to curb youth smoking by giving the federal Food and Drug Administration new regulatory authority over the tobacco industry. "Before the FDA provision to regulate tobacco was stripped out by the conference committee, it was the most important health bill to come before this Congress," said Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio. While the Senate was scheduled to cast a separate voice vote today on FDA controls, it is likely to be largely symbolic because House Republican leaders have aggressively opposed the new controls. The buyout payments would go over 10 years to owners of tobacco quota - a license that dictates how much leaf a farmer can grow - and to growers; Virginia quota holders and growers would receive an estimated $666 million. The bill would allow the growers to make a choice whether they continue to produce tobacco in a free market or give it up. The existing tobacco system has been hurt by costs associated with a large number of quota owners who rent out to growers the right to raise tobacco, and by price supports that keep the cost of U.S. leaf higher than that of foreign tobacco. Enditem