Senators rip top USDA officials over trade program

Senate Finance Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, Finance ranking member Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Senate Budget ranking member Kent Conrad, D-N.D., wrote Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman Monday to express their "dismay" that she would fail to meet the deadline mandated by Congress in the 2002 Trade Act to establish a trade adjustment assistance program for farmers by Feb. 3.

The senators said after months of meetings, Veneman's staff had informed their offices recently that the program was unlikely to start for another six months.

"This delay makes it highly unlikely that any of the $90 million appropriated by Congress for fiscal 2003 will reach the intended beneficiaries of this program," the senators wrote. "It is our understanding, moreover, that despite efforts at the staff level, it is an apparent lack of engagement at the highest levels of management within the department that has led to this result," they said.

The senators reminded Veneman that President Bush had agreed to a trade adjustment assistance program for farmers.