Short of a farm bill vote, or a piece of agricultural legislation moving across the President’s desk for signature, big-city newspapers rarely focus on farm-related news. But that’s exactly what happened recently. It began on October 23 when the Houston Chronicle credited crop insurance with saving “Texas farmers from ruin.” More than 41,000 farmers in…
Critics of farm policy often like to label it a “New Deal” policy. Their hope is to make the policies that underpin the best food system in the history of the world sound outdated. Never mind the fact that farm policies have undergone radical changes since that time to keep pace with modern challenges and…
October 19, 2011 Dear Senator: We urge you to oppose amendments to the Fiscal Year 2012 Agriculture Appropriations Bill that propose to alter or negatively affect the mandatory funding for U.S. farm policies. As you know, the agriculture appropriations bill, as reported by the committee, fully complies with discretionary spending guidelines. This is the end…
The Administration is pushing a new plan that would injure one of the few sectors in our economy that is actually creating jobs and helping offset an otherwise gloomy fiscal situation. As has happened in three of the last six years, rural America is being called upon to give more than its fair share in…
With the floodwaters rising and the nation’s attention focused on the looming Midwest destruction, government officials asked me to make an enormous sacrifice. They needed my farmland to extend and build up a levee to hold back an unprecedented wall of water. If I said yes, it would save millions of dollars for businesses, homes…
The House Agriculture Committee Chairman and Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member released the following statement on Sept. 19, 2011. Lucas & Roberts Respond to the President’s Debt Plan WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Representative Frank Lucas (R-OK), Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, and U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS), Ranking Member of the Senate Agriculture Committee,…
As Congress recessed in August, overworked staffers breathed a sigh of relief, anxiously awaiting some well-deserved peace and quiet. Then the earth shook…literally. And the earthquake that rocked DC was followed by a damaging hurricane, which was followed by an entire week of non-stop rain and flooding from a tropical storm. Then Congress came back…
Agriculture is collectively holding its breath as the “super committee” meets to determine where the $1.2 trillion worth of federal budget funds will be cut. Having already shouldered more than $12 billion in cuts for deficit reduction in the past several years, farmers and ranchers feel the pain that other sectors have yet to experience.…
Texas is an exceptional state, and most Texans will be happy to explain why that’s so. Unfortunately, for this year, that term also applies to the bone-dry conditions we’ve seen unfold over the last 12 months. Texas, it seems, is locked in what weather experts call “an exceptional drought,” something many parts of the state…
Farm Bill to Determine Future Success Stories about the post 2008 credit crunch conjure up immediate feelings of anxiety and churning stomachs as many remember what was the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Banks that survived the crash became much more stringent about who they provided loans to. Consumers wishing…
Issue Summary: The National Journal recently reported about the ongoing budget discussions on Capitol Hill: Fiscal watchdogs and lawmakers from both parties have painted the clash as an opportunity to make a significant step toward shifting the country off its unsustainable path, but a deal that doesn’t address revenue and entitlements, which would likely have…
I believe there to be a set of basic guiding principles that should direct Congress’s work on the Farm Bill. Foremost, we must recognize that U.S. agriculture is an intricate component of our jobs, economy, and national security. Basing arguments and legislative proposals on pure emotion and skewed statistics is reckless and opens the door…
More than 130 organizations spanning the breadth of the agricultural spectrum – from small community based groups to the largest commodity trade associations – informed President Obama and Congressional leaders of their strong opposition to efforts to balance the federal budget on the backs of farmers and rural America. “We are extraordinarily concerned about the…
The weather has been so wild and so unpredictable this year that it’s not just farmers who are complaining about it. Here in the Corn Belt, it’s been cold and damp for so long that it took us forever to get our crop in. Parts of the Southwest wheat belt are parched, while millions of…
Amid the long list of federal projects costing taxpayers far more than predicted, one policy stands alone by coming in billions of dollars under budget. From 2007 to 2011, this policy trimmed taxpayer spending 31 percent when compared with the same four-year period a decade earlier. It even found room to contribute to deficit reduction…
In the May 17 issue of the National Journal Daily it was reported that the Vice President’s working group had not yet settled on a plan to raise the debt ceiling while cutting federal spending, but that the group may be coalescing around even deeper cuts to U.S. farm policy. All week there have been…
We have been taught from an early age that humans have four basic needs: food, water, clothing and shelter. Interestingly enough, it is the U.S. farm sector that provides two—food and clothing—out of those four needs. This fact puts farming and the programs that protect farmers from adversity—the farm safety net—pretty high on this country’s…
On Feb. 17, at least one senior House member suggested that the week’s hearings on the state of the farm economy may have marked the beginning of the 2012 Farm Bill debate. I believe the whole week may have. The week was kicked off with the annual nonevent of the President’s budget submission to the…
WASHINGTON (June 18, 2010)—Sometimes, it’s better to get something right late than never at all. In the case of agriculture, the time is now, and one organization is refocusing its attention in the right direction. In a recent meeting, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (a group of 31 wealthy, market-oriented countries) shifted its…
WASHINGTON (April 15, 2010)—Even though federal spending on farm policy continues to come in under budget, U.S. farmers continue to come under attack. Most recently, crop insurance-an essential component of the farm safety net-has found itself in the Administration’s crosshairs. But these internal attacks seem to be isolated to the United States. One of America’s…
WASHINGTON, DC (March 17, 2010)—Key U.S. senators sent a letter this week to President Barack Obama opposing proposed cuts to federal agriculture budget. “Cutting farm programs in the midst of an economic downturn sends the wrong signal to rural America,” noted Republican Senators Saxby Chambliss (GA), Pat Roberts (KS), John Thune (SD), Thad Cochran (MS),…
WASHINGTON (March 16, 2010)—One of the nation’s biggest agricultural trade groups underscored its support of the farm safety net, including crop insurance, at its annual conference today and overwhelmingly passed a resolution opposing needless budget cuts to farm policy. The National Farmers Union (NFU), which represents more than 250,000 family farmers, adopted the policy at…
WASHINGTON (March 12, 2010)—Special interests with no real hands-on experience on the farm are threatening the very policies that will be essential to feeding a growing world population, according to a major ag lender. “[T]he group of people who are formulating food system policy and regulatory frameworks have expanded beyond . . . the traditional…
WASHINGTON (Feb. 5, 2010)—Just moments after President Obama released his much-anticipated budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year, widely respected Congressional leaders on both sides of the political aisle voiced displeasure. “Put simply the President’s proposal picks winners and losers,” Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) said in a statement. “By targeting policies that…
In their crusade against the cotton industry, Post editors are quick with inflammatory adjectives but short on facts when it comes to agricultural policy and trade disputes. They cite historical spending but decline to note that spending on the price-based provisions involved in the Brazil dispute likely will be zero for the 2010 crop. They…
By DeVonna Zeug It’s an odd thing—on one hand Uncle Sam is looking for ways to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to spur jobs creation and economic recovery while on the other hand Washington is proposing a plan that I fear will destabilize crop insurance that we farmers need, lenders require, and billions of…
WASHINGTON (Dec. 7, 2009)—In an era of bulging deficits, there is one area of the federal budget—farm policy—that’s actually coming in well below projections, according to new Congressional Budget Office figures analyzed by Farm Policy Facts. Relative to budget projections made in 2002, farm policy in the 2002 and 2008 farm bills has saved taxpayers…
WASHINGTON (Jun 08, 2009)—Members of the agricultural community have a money message for Congress – don’t pull funding from the 2008 farm law in budgeting for the year ahead. Forty-three organizations, among them the nation’s largest farm associations, crop insurance providers, and agricultural lenders, petitioned the House Appropriations Committee in a letter last Thursday to…
By: Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) Excerpt from Congressional Record May 14, 2008: This farm bill contains solid reforms while addressing a variety of issues including forestry, rural development, renewable energy, nutrition, conservation, research, specialty crops, and livestock and still maintains the safety net necessary to ensure a safe, reliable and affordable domestic food supply. This…
By: Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) Excerpt from Congressional Record May 15, 2008: [T]oo few Americans realize how important America’s farmers and ranchers are to the economy and the security of this country. Over the last few years, major newspapers and Washington special interest groups have been busy demeaning our Nation’s farmers and ranchers… These attacks…
In the fifth installment of our ongoing series about the unsubstantiated claims from farm policy opponents, Farm Policy Facts will examine a recent claim made by the Bush Administration about the farm bill that’s left a lot of folks on the Hill scratching their heads. Myth: This farm bill does not meet Administration demands and…
In the fourth installment of our ongoing series about the unsubstantiated claims by farm policy opponents, Farm Policy Facts will take a closer look at a recent claim made by the Bush Administration about the pending farm bill. Myth: “At a time of record farm incomes, Congress decided to further increase farm subsidy rates.” -Agriculture…
President John Adams once said, “Facts are stubborn things.” Opponents of farm policy obviously didn’t get the memo. During this farm bill, a handful of special interest groups and big city papers have continued to regurgitate numerous myths about farm programs even though the numbers prove these arguments to be blatantly false. Over the next…
WASHINGTON (Mar. 13, 2008)—Growing frustrated and worried about the endless stalemate over the farm bill, U.S. farmers and ranchers are calling on Congress to put differences aside in the interest of quickly passing a bill with a safety net that reflects the best of both the House and Senate passed bills. “It has been eight…
Washington (Dec. 14, 2007)—Farmers and ranchers today applauded as the Senate passed the 2007 farm bill by a bipartisan vote of 79 to 14. The final package did not include the harmful amendments designed to gut the farm safety net, cripple farmers’ crop insurance, and slash farm benefits. “Wheat growers have been waiting for this…
Washington (Dec. 12, 2007)—Groups representing farmers from coast to coast sent a letter to every Senator this morning asking them to “protect what it has taken 25 years to build” and to vote against the crop insurance amendment proposed by Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), John Sununu (R- N.H.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.). “The Senate Agriculture…
WASHINGTON (Dec. 12, 2007)—Farmers and ranchers applauded as the Senate soundly defeated a farm bill amendment by Senators Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) to gut the farm safety net. The amendment, which fell on a 58 to 37 vote, was almost identical to a similar amendment offered by Reps. Ron Kind (D-Wis.) and…
WASHINGTON (Dec. 11, 2007)—Former House Agriculture Committee Chairman Larry Combest urged Senators to finish their work on the farm bill before adjourning for the year and not let amendments bog down the process in a speech delivered today to the Farm Journal Forum. “For all of the Senators who say that they care about the…
Excerpt from Dec. 3 Speech by Larry Combest to USA Rice Federation Now, I suppose it is possible, and perhaps it is even probable, that short term extensions of current law may continue to take place until the full five year Farm Bill is completed. This would certainly provide farm families with at least some…
Washington (Nov. 20, 2007)—Twenty-six organizations representing farmers and ranchers from coast to coast are calling upon the U.S. Senate to oppose an effort to gut the safety net provided to America’s farmers in the 2007 farm bill. The November 16 letter urged Senators to oppose the Farm, Ranch, Equity, Stewardship and Health (FRESH) Act (S.…