Agricultural News
NCFC President Feels Confident Farm Bill Will Pass Sometime this Summer
Tue, 14 May 2013 15:45:13 CDT
Chuck Conner, president of the National Council of Farmers Cooperatives, said the fact that both the House and Senate are marking up their respective farm bills this week is extremely encouraging.
"This week marks a milestone along the way in the long overdue process of passing a new, five-year farm bill. Chairwoman Stabenow and Ranking Member Cochran in the Senate, and Chairman Lucas and Ranking Member Peterson in the House, are to be commended for their swift action in moving the farm bill process forward this spring."
The process took another step forward Tuesday afternoon as the Senate Agriculture Committee finished its work and voted to move their bill out of committee.
Conner spoke with Radio Oklahoma Network's Ron Hays and said he believes Congressional leaders have finally gotten the message that producers wanted a five-year farm bill and now was the time to get it done. (You can hear the full interview by clicking on the LISTEN BAR at the bottom of this story.)
"They've dedicated themselves to try and produce a bill in the House and in the Senate acceptable to all regions of the country. I think that's giving them a lit bit more motivation as well to get it done.
"All in all, you've got to believe with the markup of both the House and Senate this week that there's a very, very good chance we're going to get a five-year bill done sometime over the course of this summer."
Obstacles still remain, however. The Senate and House are still far apart on how much to cut from the nutrition title. The Senate version cuts $4 billion and the House version cuts $20. That's a large gap to bridge, Conner said.
"There is no question that that is the issue that will determine whether or not we successfully get a farm bill done. I don't think the Title I commodity provisions will be a stumbling block to getting a five-year farm bill done. But the nutrition funding will. The difference between 20 billion dollars and four billion dollars in the Senate, that's a big difference. And I think the bigger question is, in an urban-oriented House of Representatives where membership is determined based upon population, can $20 billion of food stamps pass the full House? And I think that's an open question and it will be very difficult for a lot of Democratic members of the House to vote for $20 billion of food stamp cuts. So, we'll see what happens."
He said there has been talk of separating the commodity and nutrition titles, but that, in his estimation, such a separated bill would have no chance of passage in the House.
Conner said he doesn't see Congress updating the 1949 permanent agriculture law with a new one, either, as some have called for. He said the real value in the 1949 law appears to lie in its threat as a "poison pill" to goad Congress into passing regular farm bills rather than letting farm policy revert to the provisions of the 1949 law.
Conner also said it is imperative to get the five-year farm bill passed and begin getting it implemented by the Agriculture Department to help eliminate some of the leftover headaches from sequestration. He said the eight-percent cut in direct payments under sequestration are probably baked in the cake and we need to move forward with the five-year bill so farmers can plan accordingly.
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