President Vetoes Bill News Update May 21, 2008 Bush Vetoes Farm Bill President Bush announced this afternoon that he had vetoed the 2007 Farm Bill offered Tuesday by the House and Senate. Although the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008, H.R. 2419, passed the House of Representatives 318-to-106 and the Senate 81-to-15, the President quickly vetoed the legislation on grounds that the nearly $300-million package gave too much money to wealthy farmers at the expense of taxpayers. Legislators can override the veto if enough votes are collected, something that has occurred only once during Bush’s time in office. Both the House and Senate are expected to hold veto override votes today. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Deputy Secretary Chuck Conner released a statement saying the legislation fails to implement meaningful reform to farm programs while increasing taxpayer spending by more than $20 billion. “This massive spending package — in a time of escalating food prices and gas closing in on $4 a gallon — is simply unacceptable,” Conner said. Conner said that as more of the 1,700-page spending bill becomes unveiled, “we learn more about the taxpayer abuses and unsound policy that is in this bill. Just recently it was brought to light that a $170 million earmark for the salmon industry was slipped into this bill at the last moment. It joins other egregious earmarks, such as millions for a ski resort in Vermont and $250 million for a federal land grab in Montana. And Congress has included last minute changes to the so-called ACRE farm subsidy program that likely will result in tens of billions of new government outlays in the future.” Conner suggested Congress “extend the current Farm Bill rather than jeopardize America’s support for the farm bill with wasteful spending that fails to target payments to farmers who really need the support.” The current extension of the 2002 Farm Bill expires Friday, May 23, 2008.