The FAIR Act of 1996: Party, Production and Practicality in the Passage of a Farm Bill

This study extends the research done by Winders (2001) and Orden et al. (1999) on the passage of the 1996 farm bill, the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act (FAIR). Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, I argue that Democrats and Republicans were affected differently by a number of influences. Democratic members of Congress appear to have been influenced most by state or district dependence on federal agriculture payments and the timing of the farm bill debate. Party control, on the other hand, seemed to have had a greater impact on Republicans.