Tobacco growers may get aid
07/29/99
An influential bloc of Southern senators yesterday called on Republican leaders to include $328 million in aid for tobacco growers as part of a massive farm relief bill.
Led by Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, senators from the nation's main tobacco-producing states said in a letter that leaf growers should not be forgotten as Congress carves out emergency aid for others hurt by a slumping farm economy.
The $328 million in direct compensation for tobacco growers would mean roughly $1 in aid for every pound of burley and flue-cured tobacco quota cut this year. Burley growers this season saw the largest yearly cut ever -- 29 percent -- in the amount of tobacco they can grow and sell.