Robert Pore

The Grand Island Independent

Posted May 23, 2008

GRAND ISLAND —

Nebraska Farmers Union President John Hansen is an old hand when it comes to working on farm bills.

Hansen is chairman of the National Farmers Union Legislative Committee and has been on the committee since 1990. His experience working with farm legislation goes back to 1972.

But he described passage of this year's Farm Bill as "one for the record books."

"During this two-yearlong, difficult, confusing and challenging process, everyone involved has struggled to respond to the changing realities facing both food producers and consumers," Hansen said.

He said that despite all the "negative press," "... this Farm Bill is a forward-looking bill that is about much more than just farmers. It is also about food assistance, renewable energy, conservation and rural development.” 

He said this is the first Farm Bill in history to become law over the veto of the president, complicated by a series of errors that began with a clerical error by the House of Representatives that inadvertently left out Title 3 of the Farm Bill as the bill was sent to the White House. 

"The error was compounded by the failure of the Office of Management and Budget and the White House to catch the omission," Hansen said.

While Title 3, the trade title of the Farm Bill and budget, will need to be dealt with after the Memorial Day break, Hansen said 14 of the 15 titles of the Farm Bill are now law. 

"It is fortunate that this Farm Bill has strong bipartisan support in both the House and Senate, or we would have no Farm Bill at all, and that would be a real disaster for conservation, and both food producers and food consumers," Hansen said.

The Farm Bill was passed by the House by a 318-106 margin and by a 81-15 margin in the Senate.
Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., both voted for the bill, while Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., voted against it.

After President Bush vetoed the bill, both the House and Senate voted to override the veto.

Hansen said Nelson and Smith, who are, respectively, members of the Senate and House Agriculture Committee, worked hard through the complicated process of passing the Farm Bill.

"They brought forward many positive amendments to the Farm Bill that will benefit Nebraska," Hansen said.

Nelson called the Bush administration's Farm Bill position "disingenuous."  He said the Farm Bill includes a number of reforms, such as ensuring farm payments go to farmers and ranchers rather than paper corporations and tightening the adjusted gross income limit so that payments don't go to the wealthiest people. 

A reform provision, written by Nelson, would end the practice of people buying former farmland and still receiving federal payments even though they are not farming.

"While this Farm Bill is not perfect -- and no legislation is -- Congress did make improvements that cannot be overlooked," Nelson said.

He said delaying passage of this bill until next year would have cost American agriculture billions of dollars that Washington would have spent on other programs.

"This is money our farmers and ranchers can't afford to lose," Nelson said.

Among provisions of the Farm Bill Hansen highlighted:

-- A permanent disaster assistance program for farmers and ranchers.

-- A country-of-origin labeling agreement that includes the grandfathering date from Jan. 1, 2008, to July 15, 2008, for foreign livestock already in the U.S.

-- Authorization of a process to allow interstate shipment of state-inspected meat.

-- Continuation of the Milk Income Contract Loss (MILC) program with added cost of production.

-- More than $900 million for specialty crops.

-- $7.9 billion for conservation programs.

-- More than $10 billion in increased funding for domestic and international nutrition programs.

-- Payment reforms that eliminate the triple-entity rule, require direct attribution of farm program payments, lower the adjusted gross income program eligibility hard cap from $2.5 million to $500,000 for non-farmers and set a new $750,000 AGI eligibility hard cap for farmers.

-- Increased funding for the next generation of renewable fuels.

-- Extension of the 54-cent ethanol tariff for two years, but reduction of the ethanol blenders' credit from 51 cents to 45 cents.

-- An additional $2.4 billion for the EQIP program over the next 10 years.

-- The National Veterinary Medical Services Act, a loan repayment program for food animal veterinarians practicing in underserved areas, was revamped to limit the program to rural areas.

-- A new Rural Energy Self-Sufficiency Initiative that would provide grants to rural communities seeking to become self-sufficient in energy production through the use of renewable sources such as wind and solar, biomass, biofuels, and biogas.

-- An amendment allowing school systems and other government institutions to purchase local foods from local farmers.

-- An adjustment to the Value-Added Producer Grants Program that would help target assistance to farmers with small or mid-sized farms who develop new uses and creative marketing strategies for their products.

-- Closing of the "Enron Loophole" for oil market speculators, a change that would in effect increase market transparency.