Tobacco is in trouble.
Lewis spoke during a hearing before a House Agriculture Committee panel that oversees the tobacco program that sets quotas on how much is grown and determines the price. President Clinton has promised to protect the 124,000 tobacco farmers in any final settlement, but he has made no concrete proposals and included nothing for them in his fiscal 1999 budget plan. Congress is far from certain to pass the tobacco settlement, a complicated deal that cigarette makers proposed last year to end 40 state anti-tobacco lawsuits. At the hearing, several growers' representatives said Congress must save some form of the tobacco program on top of agreeing to buy out quotas held by landowners and to make transition payments for tenant farmers. Farm representatives from Virginia, Kentucky and Georgia each said that without a tobacco program keeping prices artificially high, land values and farmer income would plummet, devastating rural Southeast economies.