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NEFU: Senate Ag Committee Farm Bill Is Positive Step

WASHINGTON (Oct. 25, 2007) – Nebraska Farmers Union congratulated Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, Ranking Member Saxby Chambliss and members of the Agriculture Committee, including Nebraska’s Sen. Ben Nelson for their hard work to develop a 2007 Farm Bill that received overwhelming bi-partisan support Thursday. The Senate Farm Bill proposal contained many provisions that are long time Farmers Union priorities.

Key Farm Bill provisions include:

protects the income safety net for farmers when prices fall;
Creates a permanent disaster program funded by import tariff revenues;
Contains a ban on packer feeding of livestock;
Ensures mandatory country of origin labeling (COOL) will be implemented for meats, fruits and vegetables;
Ban on packer ownership of livestock;
Competition title to reduce concentration in the marketplace;
Invests $1.3 billion in fuels from the farm;
$3.7 billion for conservation programs;
$500 million to promote economic growth and jobs in rural America;
Restores the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program to original levels;
$4.2 billion increase in nutrition program spending;
Increases funding for specialty crop producers.

"Farmers Union played a significant role in successfully adding many of these key Farm Bill provisions. Our Washington, D.C. staff, state and national officers, and members have worked very hard, but the job is not over until the Senate approves the Farm Bill, the Conference Committee works out the differences between the two versions, and either the President signs the Farm Bill, or the Congress overrides his veto, Hansen said.

It is ironic that because the 2002 Farm Bill did a good job of saving money by including more countercyclical income support provisions, the 2007 bill had a reduced budget baseline to work with. Hansen said that Congress needs to reward programs that save money, not penalize them.

The Senate Ag Committee took Nebraska’s Sen. Ben Nelson advice and entitled their Farm Bill: “The Food and Energy Security Act of 2007.” Sen. Nelson has championed such a title for some time. “It is high time we recognized that our Farm Bill is not just food security, it is also energy and national security,” Hansen said. He also praised Sen. Nelson for his leadership in working out many of the sticky and difficult details of many Farm Bill provisions. “Sen. Nelson is a consensus builder, and provides the Senate Ag Committee with a badly needed skill, the ability to pull things together, and move them forward,” Hansen said.

"This Farm Bill helps plug the single biggest hole in the current safety net, the lack of a permanent disaster program. When weather-related disasters occur, we need an administrative process to be in place to help ag producers in their time of need in a timely fashion. Thanks to the leadership of Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus and Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, this key provision will be in the Farm Bill,” Hansen said.

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