Agricultural News
Grain Associations Examine Some of the Major Amendments Offered to 2012 Farm Bill
Fri, 15 Jun 2012 14:55:15 CDT
On the Senate floor this week, consideration of the 2012 Farm Bill got underway with hundreds of amendments being offered. The National Grain and Feed Association and the Oklahoma Grain and Feed Association have summarized progress on the bill and some of the major amendments in their latest newsletter:
Progress Minimal on Senate Farm Bill as Deal on 250 Amendments Remains Elusive
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, NV) once again this week pleaded with his colleagues to withdraw most of nearly 250 amendments filed on the pending 2012 Farm Bill. All eyes now turn to next Monday evening when it's hoped Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R, KY) will announce they've reached an agreement on which amendments will be debated and voted upon and which will simply be talked about.
The vast majority of amendments filed so far are unrelated to the Farm Bill or are parochial interests of individual Senators with little relationship to the underlying bill, but some Senators have made public threats to vote against the bill if their particular amendments are not at least considered.
Sen. Pat Roberts (R, KS), ranking member on the Senate Agriculture Committee, told one reporter this week, "There are people who want to throw a monkey wrench into the gear box if, in fact, they don't get their particular amendment."
Votes on unpopular amendments this week included one by Sen. Jean Shaheen (D, VT) designed to kill the sugar support program and another by Sen. Rand Paul (R, KY) to turn the federal food stamp program into a state block grant program. Both amendments were tabled. Key to killing both amendments was a bloc of conservative 33 GOP Senators, including many southerners, led by Roberts.
When Reid proposed moving to four other amendments, he was blocked by Paul and then by Sen. Tom Coburn (R, OK) who proposed the Senate set a limit on amendments at 40 and take them up in rapid-fire succession. Reid seemed to like the Coburn plan, but Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R, GA), who's leading the fight against the committee-approved commodity title as discriminating against southern producers, said he'd seen a preliminary list of possible amendments and it did not include several he's brought forward, including one that would create an "alternative countercyclical " program exclusive to rice and peanuts. Chambliss said he wants any and all amendments debated, and that Farm Bill consideration should be debated "for weeks."
Conrad/Chambliss Amendment on Target Prices May Break Logjam on Farm Bill
Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow (D, MI) is the voice of optimism on the future of her committee's 1,000-page 2012 Farm Bill - predicting this week a final floor vote could come as early as next week - despite 250 amendments filed to modify the bill and the continuing rebellion of southern Senators against the commodity title of her bill.
The committee-passed bill includes an Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) shallow loss income protection program - a risk program covering 15-21% of losses not covered by crop insurance - that southerners contend discriminates against rice and peanut farmers. However, late this week, Sen. Kent Conrad (D, ND), chair of the Senate Budget Committee and ag committee member, joined with Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R, GA), former chair of the committee, to file an amendment that would preserve target prices as an add-on to the ARC program. They were joined by Sens. Max Baucus (D, MT), chair of the Finance Committee, and ag panel member Sen. John Hoeven (R, ND).
Many say the Conrad/Chambliss plan is the needed breakthrough to mollify southern farmers and move the bill forward. The amendment would increase target prices 4-7% from current levels, a more conservative approach than proposed last December to the deficit reduction "super committee." It would also pay farmers on a maximum 75% of base acres planted or prevented from planting, and carries a separate payment limit on countercyclical payments of $65,000 a year.
This "moderate" target price approach would have to include offsets or buy-downs on its cost, but most consider the Baucus-Conrad alliance as key to finding the money to pay for the program. One way to offset the cost is to remove a provision that now allows farmers who haven't grown a crop to use an "actual production history plug" - essentially a "what-if" number that would be used to qualify for crop insurance. This would be coupled with a cut in the new peanut revenue insurance program now included in the committee bill.
Southerners are quietly embracing the Conrad/Chambliss approach, not as a solution to their complaints, but as a means of getting the bill through the Senate and into conference with a House bill, which is expected to be far more generous on the target price side of farm income protection.
McConnell Lays Out Anti-Regulation Amendments to Farm Bill
This week Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R, KY) laid out a list of five initiatives he wants included in the Farm Bill to overturn or block pending EPA and other government agency rulemakings. The package includes language on financial derivatives, non-navigable waters, worker safety rules affecting farm children and EPA's dust rule.
An amendment by Sen. Mike Johanns (R, NE) would block EPA from regulating ag dust, a demonstration he doesn't trust EPA's assurances it has no intention of regulating farm dust. McConnell specifically referred to a separate action to bar EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers from extending their regulatory authority under the Clean Water Act (CWA) to ponds, ditches and other non-navigable waters.
Sen. John Thune (R, SD) filed an amendment that would require the Department of Labor to consult with Congress before worker safety rules affecting children are proposed.
Johanns and Sen. Mike Crapo (R, ID) filed an amendment that would bar the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) from imposing end user margin requirements on derivatives trades. The Johanns/Crapo amendment is identical to a bill that overwhelmingly passed the House.
In an independent move, Johanns also filed an amendment that would prohibit EPA from conducting aerial surveillance to investigate farm and ranch compliance with EPA regulations. The amendment comes on the heels of a letter Johanns and the rest of the Nebraska delegation sent to EPA asking why it was conducting aerial "inspections," how the information was used, etc. Johanns said he was expecting EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to respond to the letter, but instead the response came from EPA's District 7 office, and "until they're open and transparent, we should just stop it." Sen. Chuck Grassley (R, IA) has also asked EPA to brief him on overflights in Iowa that is also overseen by EPA District 7, but said he hasn't passed judgment, but has questions he wants answered.
Banks, Insurers Promote Crop Insurance, Checkoff Change Assailed, Export Assistance Attacked
As the proposed amendments to the 2012 Farm Bill continued to pile up in the Senate, so, too, did the press releases, letters and other communications defending or attacking various proposals.
The Independent Community Bankers (ICB), along with the American Association of Crop Insurers and the Crop Insurance & Reinsurance Bureau, took on the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and several Senatorsby denouncing any attempt to change federal crop insurance programs, urging the Senate to "avoid amendments that result in-lower premiums or a weaker delivery system." ICB also urged the Senate to reject amendments aimed at restricting farmer access to USDA's guaranteed operating loan program or efforts to restrict that program.
The American Soybean Assn. (ASA) told the Senate this week to reject an amendment by Sen. Jim DeMint (R, SC) that would effectively make all current producer-funded checkoff programs voluntary. DeMint has characterized mandatory checkoff programs as a tax; ASA said such programs allow farmers to "invest their own dollars to conduct research, build markets and create new uses" for various products.
Sen. Tom Coburn (R, OK) filed an amendment against the USDA Market Access Program (MAP) seeking to cut the program by $30 million and withhold federal dollars from certain market promotion activities. He singled out industry associations receiving MAP money based on whether the group enjoys the membership of "big corporations with 'household' name products."
In a letter dated June 13, 2012, 80 members of the Coalition to Promote U.S. Agricultural Exports strongly opposed an amendment by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) to S. 3240 (Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2012) to reduce annual funding for the Market Access Program (MAP) by $40 million and prohibit the use of MAP funds for certain activities.
A coalition of groups, including the American Feed Industry Assn. (AFIA), which receive MAP funding or support industries which do, said in a letter this week, "Reducing funding for MAP would seriously undermine U.S. agriculture's ability to compete in this highly competitive international marketplace. It is a very efficient, cost-effective program."
The groups also pointed out that under MAP; participants must evaluate and adjust all export market development activities every year. This analysis, in conjunction with feedback from USDA overseas officers, determines whether activities merit funding.
NGFA Offers CRP Fix as Groups Call for Holding the Line on Conservation Programs
Nearly 525 groups, companies and individuals calling on Congress this week to reject moves to go beyond the current Farm Bill when it comes to funding cuts or changes to USDA's conservation programs, contending the programs have already paid their fair share in deficit reduction. At the same time, the National Grain & Feed Assn. (NGFA) put forward a proposal to remove what it called "prime farmland" from Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) eligibility, action echoed by most of industry.
The conservation groups said the USDA programs are essential to sustainability in ag and forestry, and told the Senate to "hold the line" at the committee-approved bill. NGFA said CRP needs to lose "millions of acres of 'prime farmland', based on a study by Strategic Conservation Solutions LLC, a company headed by the former head of USDA's Natural Resources & Conservation Service (NRCS).
The study released this week by the National Grain & Feed Foundation, shows that as recently as 2007, up to 8.7 million CRP acres was considered prime farmland by USDA itself and was idled under 10- and 15-year contracts. The study revealed that while some of this farmland was part of filter strips, grassed waterways and other highly sensitive acres eligible for continuous signup and would likely remain idled, "there is an urgent need to manage the program so that the most productive land from the reserve is returned to production."
The NGFA study, recognizing the Senate Farm Bill takes CRP from a 32-milliion acre cap to a 25-million acre cap by 2017, this reduction should be accelerated and pegged to expiring contracts, and by removing prime farmland and barring future farmland enrollment, the new cap should be closer to 21 million acres.
The study, entitled "ReGaining Ground - A Conservation Reserve Program Right-Sized for the Times" - also carries 10 legislative and eight administrative recommendations on how to improve CRP, and can be found by going to www.ngfa.org.
Sanders Attacks Biotech Crops on Labeling, Approvals, "Coexistence" Payments
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I, VT) filed a series of anti-biotechnology amendments to the pending Senate Farm Bill this week, ranging from mandated compensation to organic farmers who prove their crops were "contaminated" by pollen from biotech crops to an override provision that would allow states to mandate labeling of foods containing GM ingredients.
Sanders' "Farmer Protection Act" would provide that farmers couldn't be held liable for any penalty they may face if their organic or non-GM crop is contaminated by a biotech crop, and it would allow the grower to sue a biotech company for "monetary damages for injury to the agricultural producer caused by the genetically engineered product." It also awards fees to the plaintiff's attorney if the farmer wins.
The labeling amendment is co-authored by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D, CA), in whose state this fall voters will vote on a convoluted GM labeling ballot question, and would set aside federal preemption on food labeling to allow states to force labeling of GM foods or those foods containing GM ingredients. It would also require USDA and FDA to set up rules to protect the states' labeling actions, and provide within two years a list of foods containing GM ingredients.
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