CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
April 24, 2012 – 11:00 p.m.
Regional Opposition Leads to Farm Bill Delay
By Ellyn Ferguson and Philip Brasher, CQ Staff
The Senate Agriculture Committee postponed its farm bill markup, scheduled for Wednesday, after Southern producers and senators complained that the draft measure did not offer enough to protect their crops.
“The Agriculture Committee has made significant progress and has bipartisan agreement on the bulk of the farm bill,”
Rice, cotton, peanut, sorghum and wheat producers had pleaded for a delay in consideration of the farm bill that was released last week, and senators unhappy with provisions affecting their regions had hurried to write amendments to address problems they saw with the measure.
“When it comes to Southern crops, I’m not happy with the approach taken,” said Sen.
In a letter to Stabenow, D-Mich., and ranking Republican
Chambliss said moving so quickly to a markup left him with little time to examine the bill and get amendments to the legislative counsel and the Congressional Budget Office for review by the April 23 deadline. He said he is working on a “slew” of potential amendments to protect Southern crops, which he thinks fare poorly in the bill.
Chambliss also is likely to be unhappy about an amendment backed by 11 committee members that would shift money from cotton industry subsidies to fund renewable-energy programs.
The draft legislation would reduce direct spending by $26.4 billion over a decade and end annual direct payments to grain and cotton farmers regardless of market conditions, creating instead a new “shallow loss” program to aid farmers who suffer yield or price losses between 11 percent and 21 percent.
The measure also would consolidate conservation programs with an emphasis on environmental improvements to working farmlands, and tighten eligibility requirements for the nation’s largest domestic nutrition program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly called food stamps.
The current authorization law (PL 110-246) expires Sept. 30. The Senate and House Agriculture committees are trying to produce a final bill before the legislative calendar runs out.
Disgruntled Dairy Processors
Southern crop growers are not the only ones worried about the new farm bill. Dairy processors are seeking the removal of provisions that would create a voluntary system to withhold milk from the market to keep excess production from depressing prices. The processors who buy raw milk from farmers to create dairy products say it would raise their costs and make them uncompetitive in international markets. Processors also say that American consumers facing higher prices would simply cut back on dairy purchases.
The milk supply provisions are part of dairy legislation (
Regional Opposition Leads to Farm Bill Delay
Peterson said dairy farmers needed new programs to avoid a repeat of 2009, when milk prices fell steeply as their feed and energy costs rose. He used a proposal by the National Milk Producers Federation as the framework for his bill.
Looking for Middle Ground
Sen.