Farm bill good for Utah, Hatch says

Except for an overridden veto by President Bush, the $290 billion farm bill quietly passed through Congress this past summer, with funds expected to last for five years.

If you're like most people, the news didn't become dinner table fodder.

"It's a piece of legislation that not that many people know a lot about, and it's almost really a misnomer in the sense that it's about a lot more than farming," Bush's Natural Resources and Environment under secretary Mark Rey said in an interview.

Rey was in Salt Lake City Thursday to address a national convention of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service. He took time out to explain the farm bill.

Rey works for the USDA directing programs administered by the U.S. Forest Service and NRCS. He helps oversee nearly 200 million acres of national forest and grasslands, along with private forestry and agriculture-related conservation programs. He also had a hand in developing the latest farm bill, which was first authorized in 1949 and was last passed in 2002.

It helps to understand Rey's job when trying to figure out how the bill impacts Utah, where three congressmen gave it a thumbs down. Out of Utah's five Washington lawmakers, Sen. Orrin Hatch was the only one to vote in favor of the bill, with Sen. Bob Bennett and Reps. Chris Cannon and Jim Matheson in opposition — Rep. Rob Bishop did not vote.

Rey said Bush vetoed it because of "budget gimmicks," noting he was the first president since Dwight Eisenhower to veto a farm bill — that was back when Ezra Taft Benson was secretary of agriculture, before coming to Utah to be president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"It was a difficult decision, but I voted for the bill because it included several important programs that will benefit Utahns," Hatch said in an e-mail response to questions. "For instance, it included a provision I advocated that addresses the shipment of state-inspected meat, one that allows ... state-inspected meat products to be sold across state lines."

Hatch said he also supported the bill, which he said received strong backing from many Utah farmers and agricultural groups, because of a fund that helps Utah farmers recover losses after drought and wildfires. He also liked the bill's nutrition and conservation programs.

"There was enough good in the farm bill for Utah to garner my support," Hatch said.