* Mississipi lawmaker displaces Pat Roberts of Kansas
* Turnover may affect farm subsidy overhaul
* Roberts, Cochran reflect deep split on farm bill
WASHINGTON, Jan 3 (Reuters) – Mississippi Senator Thad
Cochran claimed the role of Republican leader on the Senate
Agriculture Committee on Thursday, giving the U.S.
cotton-and-rice-growing region a more powerful voice in the
debate over how to reform farm subsidies.
Cochran, who chaired the committee from 2003 to 2007,
displaced Pat Roberts from Kansas, one of the largest
wheat-growing states.
Roberts was an advocate of replacing traditional crop
subsidies with a program that shielded crop revenue from poor
yields or low prices.
Although the Senate passed new farm legislation in June, its
$500 billion bill died in the House of Representatives, partly
due to opposition from Southern growers. They wanted higher
price supports and said the insurance-like system proposed in
the Senate bill was not suited to rice and peanut crops.
In a statement, Roberts said Cochran asserted his seniority
as a longer-serving member of the Agriculture Committee to take
the post of ranking Republican. Roberts held the job for the
past two years.
Following election to the Senate in 1978, Cochran, a lawyer
by training, concentrated on government funding issues and
eventually became chairman of the Senate Appropriations
Committee in 2005, overseeing all federal spending.
