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USDA Secretary Mike Johanns announced the delivery of two legislative drafts to Capitol Hill Wednesday, April 25, regarding the Conservation Title and Credit Title of the Farm Bill. "As we conducted briefings on Capitol Hill with committees and subcommittees, I talked to individual members, and we found that we were being asked quite often whether we planned to put our proposals into legislative language," says Johanns. "We went to work drafting the legislative language that would be the actual implementing language to the proposals."
"We are also drafting the legislative language that would implement the rest of the 2007 Farm Bill proposals," says Johanns. "We hope these very detailed legislative drafts of our proposals will prove helpful to Congress as the 2007 Farm Bill takes shape. We're very pleased to have the opportunity to contribute and to be helpful to Capitol Hill."
House Agriculture Chairman Peterson is expected to release a chairman's mark for his farm bill proposal when Congress finishes work on its FY08 budget resolution, which is in House-Senate conference.
Conservation focus
The legislation regarding the Conservation Title calls for $7.8 billion in additional funding and a restructuring of programs to make them easier to access and administer. They propose to expand the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and increase funding by $4.25 billion. Also included is an expansion of the Conservation Security Program, with an additional $500 million in CSP to expand the number of acres enrolled.
April 19 the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy and Research held a hearing to review USDA Farm Bill conservation programs. Congressman Tim Holden of Pennsylvania is chairman of the subcommittee. He said the hearing reminded the committee that despite budget constraints, continued support of conservation is needed.
Witness testimony is available on the Committee Web site. A full transcript of the hearing will be posted on the Committee website in 4-6 weeks.
Conservation is easy for groups to support, but finding the money and how to best use the money is the issue.
Calling for greater emphasis on working lands conservation programs, the National Corn Growers Association laid out the organization's priorities for the Conservation Title at the hearing.
NCGA believes the Conservation Title should adhere to the following criteria:
National Association of Conservation Districts President Olim Sims addressed his organization's farm bill priorities, stressing the association's focus on working lands conservation programs. "We believe there should be consolidation and streamlining of programs to ease program delivery, making them easier for producers to understand and apply for, and easier for field staff to administer," Sims said. "Complicated paperwork and program overlap cause needless administrative time for both producers and technically-trained staff."
The National Pork Producers Council called for a fairer share for pork producers of Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) funds, which are used to help the agriculture industry meet environmental standards. From 2003 through 2005, pork producers received just 3 percent of about $1.26 billion of EQIP funds allocated to livestock producers. With a new federal water-quality rule for livestock operations set to take effect this summer, pork producers need more assistance.
In addition to changes in the EQIP program, NPPC said the Conservation Security and Conservation Reserve programs need some reforms. Among other changes, NPPC wants the CSP to be made simpler for farmers to understand and wants some acres now in the CRP to be allowed to go back into crop production to ease corn supply pressures created by the rise in ethanol production.
New England Farmers Union President and Cape Cod Cranberry Growers Executive Director Jeff LaFleur urged the current 39.2 million acres enrolled in CRP not be reduced. He also said CSP and EQIP were under funded and the technical assistance producers need to navigate these often-complicated programs is also lacking.
Credit title
The credit title is where USDA has many of its programs to help beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers get their start to build up their operations. Johanns proposed changing the rules on USDA's loan program to help more beginning farmers buy land and obtain operating loans.
"We would cut the interest rate literally in half, defer the first payment for a year, increase the maximum loan value, and increase the size of both the direct ownership and the direct operating loans," he told reporters. "We would also help beginning and minority farmers buy their first spread by giving them first priority for all direct farm ownership loans."
April 17, Johanns was at Iowa State University for a Beginning Farmers Roundtable discussing the Administration's beginning farmers farm bill proposals with key leaders.
In this comments there Johanns said "if you look back over the entire history of farm policy, you would never find anything as forward-leaning as what we have proposed for beginning farmers."
The Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Proposals increases the direct payment and reserves 10% of conservation financial assistance to both beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers. Johanns said, "We are increasing the limits of direct ownership loans and direct operating loans to a combined maximum of $500,000. We are doubling the percentage of direct operating loans targeted at beginning and socially disadvantaged producers to 70%. We are targeting 100% of direct farm ownership loans towards beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers.
"We are providing greater down payment loan access and flexibility for beginning farmers and ranchers. We're proposing to cut the loan interest rate in half to 2%, defer the first payment for one year, decrease the minimum contribution toward a property purchase from 10% to 5%, and eliminating the $250,000 cap on the value of property that may be purchased. Land values have gone up, so we eliminate that cap."
Read more from the roundtable by clicking HERE.
Policy is one of the most important issues facing farmers today, but often the most difficult to digest. Jacqui Fatka has a passion to decode the often difficult world of agricultural policy into terms understandable for today's ag players.
Fatka joined the Farm Progress team as E-Content Editor in August 2003 after graduating from Iowa State University. Prior to full-time employment with Farm Progress, she interned at Wallaces Farmer magazine, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley's press office and the Iowa Pork Producers Association and freelanced for National Hog Farmer. She also worked as a public relations consultant with Iowa Industries for the Future, an effort to bring together major players in the biorenewables industry.
Currently Fatka is a staff editor at a sister publication, Feedstuffs. For Farm Futures she regularly tells the story of ongoing agricultural policy changes. Her byline can also be found on management profiles.
Fatka grew up on a grain and livestock farm near Atlantic, Iowa. She currently lives in central Ohio with her husband Eric.
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