Tuesday, September 12,2006 TheLegislativeNews-Dai ly fromCongressional Quarterly House GOP Backs Bush on Tribunals Holdout Republican senators increasingly isolated on detainee trailprocedures BY JoHN M . DoNNELLY CQ STAFF WRITER House Republicans fell in line Monday be-hind President Bush's proposal formilitary tribunals to try terror suspects, further isolat-ing a trio of Senate ArmedServices Committee lead-erswhosupport legislationthat wouldprovide such suspects with greater legal pro-tections. Thechairman oftheHouse ArmedServices hearsay evidence and testimony given after coercive interrogation. Like the president's proposal, the House bill also would permit suspects to be excluded from their own tri-alsand amend a law that guaranteessus-pectstheprotec-tion of the Geneva Conventions. Moving quickly to get legislation to Bush'sdeskthis month, the House panel isscheduled Committee, In his speech, Bush said the nation's message to terrorists DuncanHunter, R-Calif. , with thewas,' America wi ll find you, and we willbring you to justice.' to mark up the bill on Wednesday. iBy aligning with Bush'sproposal formilitary tribu-nallegislation, Hunter ratcheted support of theHouse leadership, planned Tuesday tofilea legislative proposal that echoes Bush'sown draft bill for tribunals, which would permit the introduction of clas-silied information unavailable to defendants, up pressure on John W.Warner of Virginia, theRepublican chairman of theSenate ArmedServicesCommittee,aswellas GOPpanelmembersJohnMcCainof Detaineescontinued on page 6 Pressure Builds for Drought Aid in Farm Belt BY CATHARINERICHERT, (Q STAFFWRITER Penny Altendorf,aorthDakota crop duster, measures her success in acres. A devastating drought sweeping the na-tion's farm belt has sharply reduced the Red River Valley acreage she and her husband treat with herbicides and pesticides, giving them no chance to break even this year. The Agriculture Department has declared every county in North Dakota an agricultural dis-aster area. "It's depressing when the phone doesn't ring,"shesaid."Youcanhearthewind blowing through the screen doorsand the dust blowing in the fields." Altendorf isnot alone - a long summer of drought and fireisaffecting not only farms,but alsothe businesses that serve them. That message hasbeen clearly re-ceived in Washington,especially by bank-ing and industry groups that otherwise steer clear of farming issues. Lawmakers, likewise, are listening. A bi-partisan group of senators wantsto pass $6.5 billion in emergency farmaid before the end of the year.Much of the funding would gotofarmerswho havelost crops and livestock duetodrought and firein 2005 and 2006 - but about $300 million would be set asideforsmall businesses such as Altendorfs. Emergency farmaid isnothing new for Congress - the CongressionalResearch Droughtcontinued on page 8 At the polls Chafee's tough challenge fromright is among primary contests innine states Gulf oil leases probed, p. 13 Today's Hill schedule, p. 30 PULSE OF CONGRESS EDITED BY GREG McDoNALD t& J..Wh II llllllf SENATE ADOPTS Sept.ll Resolution While House Leaders Fight Over Language House leaders were cordial enough at a small gatheringMonday night on the Capi-tol steps commemorating the five-year an-niversary of the Sept.11terrorist attacks. But simmering beneath the surface was a disagreement over wording of a draft reso-lution honoring those who died that day. The Senate adopted its own simple res-olution(SRes565)Monday afternoon, yet House members aren't scheduled to act on their measure before Wednesday. One House GOP aidedeclared that Republicans "are no longer negotiating withthe minority leader'soffice" onthe wording of the resolution because Dem-ocrats want allreferencesto legislation struck from the measure, including men-tion of the Patriot Actreauthorization (HR 3199)and the border security bill (HR 4437).Those measures were pri-marily backed by Republicans. "The resolution should be above poli-tics.We should come together to honor victimsand resolvetocontinue tofight terrorism.ButwhattheRepublicans want to do is score political points," said Jennifer Crider, spokeswomanforHouse Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Republicans, however, insist that the resolution is bipartisan and mentions only continued on page 14 Volume 42, Number 126 PageS Drought continued from page 1 Services says about $55 billion has been ap-propriated since1988 inresponse to agri-culture disasters.But industry groupssay this isthefirsttime lawmakers havetried to use such an aid package to also help busi-nesses that are integral to the farmecono-my, including crop dusters and equipment dealers. The new interest may be the key to pas-sage of farm aid before the end of the 109th Congress. Many Republicans have been re-luctant to support emergency agriculture spending this year because of budget pres-sures, but the involvement of banking and industry groupscould makethe package more appealing to business-friendly GOP members. Also,now that harvest season isnearly over -and many farmers have little to show for it -lawmakers from Washington state toMissouriare feeling pressure tohelp their constituents. Republican cosponsors of the aid pack-age (S3855) could use their clout with the GOP to win over a budget-conscious White House and other members who havenot yet signed on to the bill. Even more isat stake for two of the five Republican cosponsors:Conrad Burns of Montana and JimTalent of Missouriare both locked in tough re-election fights this fall. Finding a Target The package, sponsored by Kent Conrad, D-N.D., would provide$2.5billion more than one already proposed in the fiscal2007 Agriculture appropriations bill (HR 5384). Conrad and16cosponsorsare eyeing a number of vehicles to pass their bill and are counting on support fromsome of the 72 members who voted to include farm aid in thefiscal2006 emergency supplemental (PL 109-234). That aid eventually wascut when it pushed the cost of the Senate's ver-sion of that bill to $108.9 billion, and Pres-ident Bush threatened to veto the bill. With the legislative calendar shrinking, senatorsmay haveno choice but totry to add a new package to another bill. For now,the Agriculture bill is stalled in theSenate and isunlikely to emerge until after the midterm elections. Critics say the original $4 billion of farm aid attached to the bill by Conrad and fel-low North Dakota Democrat Byron L. Dor-gan earlier this spring isthe holdup; it has CQToday,Tuesday, September 12, 2006 Drought Afflicting Large Areas of Nation Thelong, hot summer hasleft large areas of the Great Plains, South, Northwest and South-west suffering from moderate-to-exceptional drought conditions, leading farm groups and business interests in the agricultural belt to seek help from Congress for damage to crops and livestock. '0Hawaii 'is:> () 0 Abnormally Dry 0 Moderate Drought Severe DroughtExceptional Drought Extreme Drought Source: National Drought Mitigation Center,Sept.5. proved a hard sell to budget hawks and the administration,making the measure the most likely candidate for an expected year-end omnibus appropriations bill. But folding the spending bill into an om-nibuscould be a blessing indisguise,one agriculture lobbyist says. The funding could be put into the spending package "in the dead of night," with littlepushback from Senate leadership so late in the game. House Speaker J. DennisHastert also may now be willing togoalong withthe plan, because farming communities in the IllinoisRepublican's own district suffered from drought at the end of the summer, the lobbyist said. Collective Power Hundredsof farmers,smallbusiness ownersand banking groups will rally at a Capitol Hill press conference Tuesday to publicize Conrad's bill. Theturnoutisatestamenttohow drought can affect the entire economy, said Chris Thorne, Conrad's spokesman. "Disaster doesn't stop at the farm gates," he said. TomBuis, who ispresident of theNa-tional Farmers Union, agrees. ''When the economic situationinrural America isdifficult,that translatestothe whole economy," he said. Ruralbankers whofinancefarmersare also weighing inonthe issue,saidMark Scanlan,director of agriculture policy for the Independent Community Bankers of America. When farmers go broke due to crop loss, they are lesslikely topay off loans, which can undermine the banking business, Scan-lan said. Altendorf, the crop duster, said the eco-nomic ripple effect hasraised her aware-ness of farming issues and politics. Her company,Northwood Arrow Ser-vice,runs on tight margins.AJtendorf and her husband spend thousands of dollars at the beginning of every summer to hire pi-lots,subsidizeexpensive insurance pack-ages and pay for fuel. When there is a drought- and no work comes in - the Altendorfsdon't recoup those initial expenses. "We're a small group," Altendorf said. ''We're invisible unless there isan agricul-ture crisis."+