WASHINGTON 5/14/2002 (AP)- President Bush on Monday signed a $190 billionfarm bill guaranteeing higher subsidies to growers in Midwestern andSouthern states where key political races will decide which party controlsCongress next year.At an early morning ceremony, Bush said the six-year bill ``will provide asafety net for farmers, and will do so without encouraging overproductionand depressing prices''- a position contrary to what administrationofficials argued when the bill was being written.The subsidies could help Bush in his quest to win back control of theSenate for the GOP, while giving him a chance to rack up IOUs for his own2004 re-election effort.``If he had vetoed it, it would have been very disappointing,'' saidMinnesota farmer Nathan Johnson. ``In the 2000 election, almost all of theagricultural areas voted for President Bush. They expected his support ...and we certainly have gotten it.''Some senators already are making plans to provide farmers with even moremoney this year in the form of a disaster-aid package for weather-relateddamage to 2001 crops.The new farm law will increase spending by nearly 80 percent over the costof continuing existing programs at a time when the president has beencalling on lawmakers to show fiscal restraint. The bill is estimated tocost $190 billion over the next 10 years, although the programs must berenewed after six.The signing ceremony was scheduled for 7:45 a.m. EDT, assuring widecoverage by farm broadcasters while minimizing exposure elsewhere in thecountry. Bush said his timing was a nod to farmers who get up early everyday to produce America's food. He was flanked by farm-state lawmakers fromboth parties who hope to benefit politically from the measure.Bush senior political adviser Karl Rove had told GOP senators recentlythat Bush would not stage a high-profile signing ceremony to avoidantagonizing conservatives upset with the bill's price tag, a personfamiliar with that meeting said.``It looks as though Bush is concerned about allowing the Democrats tocreate some domestic issues,'' said political analyst Stuart Rothenberg.Republicans have been burned by farm issues before: In 1986, unhappinesswith GOP farm policy helped Democrats win at least two Senate seats. Inthe heat of the 1998 campaign, President Clinton vetoed a GOP farm-aidpackage and forced lawmakers to add substantially more money.Ken Cook, a critic of the bill who is president of the EnvironmentalWorking Group, said Bush was in a no-win situation. ``Certainly, it was aloser to stand on principles here when the politics are so overwhelming.''One of the bill's biggest beneficiaries is expected to be SenateAgriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat facingre-election this fall who stood behind Bush during the ceremony. Harkinsaid the bill ``is the economic plan for rural America.''The administration had complained that both Senate and House bills fromwhich the final law was fashioned would encourage price-depressing cropsurpluses. Some Republicans implored him to veto it even after the signingceremony was scheduled.The European Union, Canada, Australia and other countries also havecriticized the bill, saying the larger subsidies would harm U.S. effortsto lower international trade barriers.``I would love to see him veto it. It is a budget buster,'' Sen. DonNickles, R-Okla., said on ``Fox News Sunday.''The bill gives farmers incentive to overproduce, Nickles said, predictingit will eventually force farm prices down. ``I don't think that helpsfarmers in the long run,'' he said.The farm bill raises subsidy rates for grain and cotton growers andrevives a target-price system abolished by the 1996 Freedom to Farm law toprovide supplemental income when commodity prices are below certainlevels.The bill also brings back subsidies for wool and honey producers andprovides new payments for milk, peanuts, lentils and dry peas. Farms thatraise livestock and produce will benefit from an 80 percent increase inspending on land-conservation programs.Support for the 1996 law dropped after commodity prices plummeted in 1998and Congress responded with a series of annual bailouts of the farmeconomy. The new law, which essentially continues those bailouts,initially was expected to cost about $170 billion over the next 10 years.However, weaker-than-expected commodity prices are now expected to causecrop subsidies to rise and push the cost up.

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