Peterson taking a two-bill approach
Peterson said he expects to release bill language July 6 and full committee markup to begin July 16. He also said the bill is scheduled for floor action July 26.
Making progress
House Agriculture subcommittees have completed action on various titles of the bill that include extensions of key programs in the 2002 farm bill and additions of $12 billion in spending.
Peterson said he has taken the two-bill approach because he wants to write a new farm bill this year and fears that if he does not offer a bill in July, there will not be time for Congress to complete action on a new bill before sections of the 2002 farm bill begin to expire Sept. 30.
“If we are not able to move in July, we are going to run out of time,"Peterson said.
Peterson said he thinks that the two-bill approach will clarify what can be funded with and without offsets, but he doubted that it will result in much more pressure on the House leadership because both Democrats and Republicans already have been “complaining" to their leadership about the need for more money for the farm bill.
First bill: The first bill would include all the programs in the 2002 farm bill including food stamps, but with no increases in food stamps. The first bill would make some changes in commodity programs, include $685 million in mandatory spending for specialty crops and reauthorize the Wetlands Reserve Program, which has expired, at 1.5 million acres and include a variety of other provisions including rules to discourage farmers from breaking up new ground for crops, assistance for minority farmers and mandatory funding for conservation in the Chesapeake Bay region for the first time. Those changes would be achieved by raising about $3 billion over five years and $5 billion over 10 years by eliminating early payment of the direct payment and countercyclical payments program in the last year of the five year bill, changes in the the crop insurance program and other minor adjustments.
The bill would not cut the direct payments program or impose stricter payment limitations, although Peterson said he expects stricter payment limits to be included either in the committee or on the House floor. It would include some additional spending for barley, oats and minor oilseed programs and an as yet undecided change in the wheat program.
Peterson said he also is considering a change in the price-based countercyclical payments program so that farmers could have a choice of a taking a revenue-based program instead. The Bush administration has made a shift to a revenue-based countercyclical program a high priority. He noted that the farm bill would meet current World Trade Organization requirements.
Second bill: The second bill would include an additional $17.5 billion in spending over five years, including $6 billion for increases in food stamps, $5 billion in disaster aid, another $1 billion for specialty crop growers, $1 billion for conservation and $2 billion for energy crops.
The Specialty Crop Alliance already said it is not pleased with the two-bill approach, but Peterson said that the specialty crop growers should be pleased with the mandatory money and changes in the conservation programs that will benefit those growers.
Peterson rejected a proposal by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., to include the Ag jobs immigration bill in the farm bill, saying he had enough controversies already. A larger immigration bill failed on the Senate floor last week.
Peterson also said he does not expect to include any provisions on implementation of the country-of-origin labeling program for red meat and said that talks with industry on that subject on going so poorly he now doubts that the committee can do anything to change that program before it goes into effect.
