Farm Bill Deadline Extended One More Week;
Slow Progress on Funding Debate
The last two weeks of Farm Bill negotiations have been a battleground of funding disputes between House and Senate leaders, in particular House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Agriculture Chair Collin Peterson, House Ways and Means Chair Charles Rangel, Senate Agriculture Chair Tom Harkin, and Senate Finance Chair Max Baucus. The two main points of contention have been inclusion of a permanent disaster relief program, costing $4 billion and a package of agriculture related tax cuts totaling $2.5 billion. Both of these issues are being pushed by Senator Baucus and are fiercely opposed by the House Leadership, especially the tax cut package.
Late this week, the House had agreed to fund the permanent disaster relief program at $2 billion and provide $1 billion in agriculture tax cuts, and the Senate had decreased their tax cut package to $2.4 billion. This does not bring resolution to the differences between the House and Senate proposals for the bill, and negotiations will extend into next week. Both the House and Senate voted to extend the bill’s deadline by one week, to April 25, and the President signed the extension today.
Some Progress Made
Although negotiations around the permanent disaster relief program and the agriculture tax cuts remain a major stumbling block, several titles of the bill have been completed and Agriculture Committee staff will be working on negotiations through the weekend. Among the tentatively agreed upon Farm Bill provisions is the funding level for the Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative, which will be funded at $20 million/year in mandatory money, with a total funding level of $80 million over 4 years. Also, classical plant and animal breeding will be listed as a priority purpose for the national competition grants program, now to be known as the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative. The Conservation Title funding level is still at $4 billion which could threaten funding for the Conservation Stewardship Program.
Next Steps
The Farm Bill Conference Committee will be meeting next Tuesday, and if the funding differences have been resolved, action on the bill will probably happen quickly in order to meet the April 25th deadline. If there is no resolution on the funding issues, Conference Chairman Harkin has said he would start the process of voting on specific farm bill titles and issues within those titles without waiting any further for a resolution to the financing debate. Even with a general agreement next week, it is all but certain that Committee staff would need an additional week to finalize the legislative details and for both houses of Congress to approve the final bill and send it to the President.
Update on the Goodlatte Pesticide Provision
Last week we sent you an alert asking you to contact your members of Congress and urge them to sign onto a Dear Colleague letter opposing inclusion of the Goodlatte Pesticide Provision in the final Farm Bill. Thanks to all of you who called and faxed letters! Below is the list of Senators and Members of Congress who signed on. If your Senator or Representative signed on, call their office and thank them.
Senators
Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
John Kerry (D-MA)
Ron Wyden (D-OR),
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA),
Russ Feingold (D-WI),
Herb Kohl (D-MN),
Charles Schumer (D-NY),
Benjamin Cardin (D-MD)
Representatives
Rush Holt (D-NJ)
Donald Payne (D-NJ)
Sam Farr (D-CA)
Earl Blumenauer (D-OR)
Peter DeFazio (D-OR)
Maurice Hinchey (D-NY)
John Lewis (D-GA)
Henry Waxman (D-CA)
Pete Stark (D-CA)
Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
Tom Allen (D-ME)
Albio Sires (D-NJ)
Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
Lynn Woolsey (D-CA)
John Hall (D-NY)
Lois Capps (D-CA)
Jerrold Nadler (D-NY)
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
Janice Schakowsky (D-IL)
Charles Gonzalez (D-TX)
Ron Kind (D-WI)
Bob Filner (D-CA)
John Olver (D-MA)
Jim McDermott (D-WA)
These Representatives asked to sign on after the letter had been submitted:
Peter Welch (D-VT)
Andre Carson (D-IN)
Stay Tuned for More…
We will continue to keep you posted on the details of the Farm Bill process as they emerge. Please stay tuned, as last minute calls and faxes may be necessary during the final days of negotiations. Please contact Tracy Lerman, Policy Program Assistant, at tracy@ofrf.org or (831) 426-6606 x 108.
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