From its inception to implementation, the 1996 farm bill, which drastically altered the face of farming for the nation by gradually eliminating subsidy payments to farmers, reflects the influence of Kansas lawmakers, policy makers, agriculture professors, students and farmers. Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman and then-Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee Pat Roberts, all hail from the sunflower state. If that is the proper term.
Simple coincidence seems to be the answer to the first question.
The 1990 farm bill, which extended the traditional government price support system on select commodities, expired during Roberts's first term as the House agriculture chairman. The Republican revolution of 1994 put Roberts and Dole in leadership positions, and it was after this election that Glickman, who lost his re-election bid for the House, was appointed to head the Department of Agriculture. Mitchell said the three high-profile Kansans were open to revamping the program because Kansans have a general distrust of government. But Roberts realized that couldn't be done all at once. The historic overhaul of U.S. agriculture policy enacted by Congress represented a compromise between lawmakers who wanted to maintain the status quo and those who wanted to cut farm programs altogether.