Some House Members Would Benefit Personally From Tobacco Buyout

[Blackaxe]

WASHINGTON (AP) - A handful of lawmakers would benefit personally from a measure they helped push through the House to pay tobacco farmers almost $10 billion to give up a Depression-era federal program to bolster prices.

Rep. Bill Jenkins, R-Tenn., would get an estimated $39,600 under the buyout, and his wife, Kathryn, an additional $14,500, according to government data compiled by the Environmental Working Group, which advocates change in federal farm policy.

Jenkins chairs the House subcommittee that deals with tobacco farming and helped draft the $9.6 billion farmer buyout that was approved by the House last month as part of broad corporate tax bill.

The proposal would pay farmers to exit the federal system that sets price and production controls on U.S. leaf. Farmers would have to give up their tobacco allotments, which limit how much they can sell each year.

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