Next Steps for the Farm Bill?

With the failure of the bipartisan House/Senate budget Super Committee to agree on a ten-year plan to reduce the federal deficit, the pressure is off of the agriculture committees (momentarily) to produce a new farm bill immediately. Agriculture conservation and energy program supporters will have more time to press their case. However, it is likely to be an uphill struggle.

November 21, the chairs of the House and Senate Agriculture committee, Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK) and Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), announced that they would be ending their accelerated efforts to produce a joint, bipartisan farm bill reauthorization and would return to a more normal process of deliberation in the months ahead. They had jointly drafted a bill in haste, largely behind closed doors, as in-put to the Super Committee’s deficit reduction plan. (Click here for previous post and background information.) The ranking member of the Senate committee, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), made clear in a statement that he would welcome the return to normal order.

Agriculture conservation and energy program advocates welcome it, too. This will provide more time to build the case for strengthened conservation and energy programs. The next several months will be critical. A draft of the bill negotiated between the committee chairs revealed plans to significantly cut these programs as part of an effort to reduce overall funding for agriculture and nutrition programs by another $23 billion over ten years. This draft will likely be the starting point for the committees’ continued deliberation.

At a time of continued high unemployment, rising economic uncertainty, and high petroleum prices, agriculture energy programs offer just the kind of public investments that are needed.

At a time of surging agricultural commodity prices, which encourage agricultural producers to open up marginal lands to row crop production, the nation needs robust conservation programs in place as a counter-balance to protect and restore the nation’s soils, water quality, wildlife habitats, and aquatic ecosystems. Millions of acres are likely to be taken out of conservation and put into crop production in the years ahead, as reported in this recent story from the Minneapolis Star Tribune .