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Agricultural News


Outside of the Farm Bill Process, Senate Ag Committee Chair Stabenow Proposes Ending Federal Farm Safety Net Program

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 05:36:12 CST

Outside of the Farm Bill Process, Senate Ag Committee Chair Stabenow Proposes Ending Federal Farm Safety Net Program The Chairman of the Senate Ag Committee, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, is proposing the full elimination of Direct Payments in a vehicle outside of the five year farm bill process. Her proposal is a part of a larger Senate Democrat plan to offer a Sequester Alternative in advance of automatic spending cuts that are supposed to go into effect March first. Stabenow described agriculture's portion of the plan as one fourth of the overall dollars needed to achieve the alternative's goal of $110 billion dollars in a combination of revenue and cuts. Agriculture would contribute $27.5 billion in cuts to the proposal.

The cuts would come solely from the Commodity Title, with no cuts from any other part of the farm law- or for that matter, from any other domestic non military spending program.

In a telephone meeting with reporters, Stabenow expressed her disdain for the Direct Payment program saying "instead of having a direct payment and giving it to folks who don't need it, we need to make sure we are providing resources to those who do."

That reference of help for those who need it is pointed at livestock producers who saw their disaster assistance program ended at the beginning of 2012 because of language in the last farm law. Stabenow claims she has held back enough money to cover the Livestock Disaster Assistance program that was funded only four of the five years in the 2008 farm law and was not included in the one year farm bill extention that was pulled together on New Year's day. That means she has money in this deal to pay for Livestock Disaster assistance for both 2012 and 2013 crop years (about $3.5 billion dollars total).

The Senate Ag Committee issued this statement attributed to the Chairlady. "The choice facing Congress is to allow drastically irresponsible cuts to hit every part of our budget and cost 750,000 jobs, or to make smart, targeted cuts. Billions in direct payment subsidies are paid out even in good times and for crops farmers aren't even growing. That's why an overwhelming bipartisan majority in the Senate voted to eliminate direct payments last year while strengthening support for farmers when they have a loss."

In her media call, the Chairman claimed she had consulted with the House Ag Committee leadership on these ideas- but clearly while she may have let them know about them- her counterpart on the House Ag Committee, Oklahoma Congressman Frank Lucas, was not buying any of her arguments that this made sense for US farm programs. The House Ag Committee issued the following statement

"Farmers and ranchers want to be a part of the solution to the fiscal crisis we face in this country. And, the House Agriculture Committee demonstrated that commitment to being a part of the solution when we passed a comprehensive, balanced farm bill that cut more than $35 billion from all of agricultural spending, including the farm safety net, conservation programs, and reforming the SNAP program.

"We made those reforms in the context of a comprehensive, five-year farm bill that ensured we still met the food and fiber needs of all Americans. The Senate's approach of taking away our investment in rural America without addressing the hole it will create is not balanced and not acceptable."

Click on the LISTEN BAR below for an audio overview of the proposal made by Chairlady Stabenow, with comments from her media call on Thursday afternoon.



   
   



Ron Hays reports on the Senate Democrat plan to pay for Year One of Sequestration with Direct Farm Program Payments
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