Agricultural News
Passing 2013 Farm Bill Imperative, Says AFR's Terry Detrick
Wed, 11 Sep 2013 12:14:01 CDT
Terry Detrick, president of American Farmers and Ranchers, wrapped up a series of meetings with Oklahoma lawmakers in Washington, D.C., recently. It was part of the annual fly-in arranged to meet Representatives and Senators as the return from their summer recess.
Radio Oklahoma Network Farm Director Ron Hays caught up with Detrick as he was preparing to depart Washington. (You can listen to their full conversation by clicking on the LISTEN BAR at the bottom of this story.)
The number one issue on their members' minds, Detrick says, is getting a farm bill passed as soon as possible. He said lawmakers also see the bill as a priority, but the opinions about the chances of it being finished soon seem to vary greatly from lawmaker to lawmaker.
"It depends on which side of the aisle you are talking to. Some are very pessimistic. Some are very optimistic. However, Congressman Lucas, chair of the House Ag Committee, still is emphatic, saying we will have a farm bill."
Detrick says Lucas is not optimistic that it will be done by the end of September when the current farm bill extension ends. He said that the 1949 permanent farm law would resume, but it would have no effect until January 1, 2014.
"So they really have from September 30 to January 1 to finalize a farm bill before the old '49 law would kick in. And that is another thing we are working on here. We want to keep the '49 law as a permanent law that, any time there is a farm bill that is not renewed by a specific time or extended, then it will revert back to the '49 law and everybody says, 'Boy, that would be impossible.'
"Well, we need that impossibility to hold over the Congress's heads so that they will get us a farm bill. That's been the insurance that we would get a farm bill."
Detrick says that each extension to the current farm drops the subsequent baseline for the following year's budget by five billion dollars. Continuing to rely on extensions would ultimately kill any farm programs. He says extensions also ignore the need for livestock disaster assistance and conservation programs.
Detrick says that there are just a few Congressional members who are unwillingly to compromise on anything regarding farm policy and it is those members who are holding up progress on the comprehensive farm bill.
According to Detrick, Chairman Lucas said a SNAP bill could pass the House as soon as next week which would then allow a conference committee to begin work on reconciling that with the Senate's version of farm legislation.
In meeting with the Oklahoma delegation, Detrick said they were pleased to have a meeting with Rep. Jim Bridenstine. Bridenstine was the only Oklahoma lawmaker to vote against the House farm bill. Detrick said Bridenstine may feel he has an obligation to cut the budget despite whose back the burden falls on. He said he was encouraged that they were at least granted a meeting with the Congressman.
In his interview, Detrick also addresses the Country of Origin Labeling issue saying they are trying to find ways to balance the consumer's desire to know where their food comes from and the cattlemen's desire not to be burdened with costly, arbitrary regulations imposed by federal bureaucrats.
"We just want to get it settled. It's an issue that's caused way too much stir out in the public. We don't need to be spending good money that we could be using to promote agriculture to fight each other. We're not really in favor of the fight. I'm sorry that the NCBA filed the injunction. I'm sorry that there were others that had to file to intervene. We've got more important things that we've got to do for our market development, for our producers. We need to get on down the road and quit spending our money on an argument."
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI
Top Agricultural News
More Headlines...
