Posted by: Phillip Fraas
May 17, 2007
Topic: REPORTS ON FARM BILL STATUS--First Half of 2007

Today, members of the House Committee on Agriculture met with reporters to announce the kick-off of the farm bill drafting process in the Committee. Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) was accompanied at the session by the ranking Republican on the Committee, Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), and a dozen other committee leaders of both parties.

Chairman Peterson announced that the first committee mark-up meeting will be next Tuesday, May 22, at 10AM, when the Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy, and Research ("CCER") convenes to mark up the four titles of the farm bill represented in the name of the subcommittee.

Peterson also disclosed that he would not release a unilateral "chairman's mark" with just his ideas on what should go into the new farm bill. Rather, he said, the subcommittees would put out consensus marks on the provisions of the farm bill over which they have jurisdiction, as part of an effort to make the farm bill process inclusive, open, and bipartisan. The language of the CCER Subcommittee consensus should be available later today or tomorrow.

Peterson alluded to the budget problem the committee faces in marking up the farm bill. The only new money that will be available to address issues that have surfaced since the passage of the current farm bill in 2002 is the $20 billion agriculture "reserve fund," a mechanism proposed by the congressional budget committees that will allow the agriculture committees to spend up to $20 billion in excess of the farm bill base line. The problem for the Committee is that "reserve fund" spending will be subject to congressional "pay-go" rules, which require that any new spending be offset by spending reductions or revenue increases elsewhere in the budget. Peterson said that the committee expects to dip into the reserve fund, but has not yet arrived at appropriate offsets to meet pay-go requirements. He also held out hope that the congressional budget resolution to be finalized within a week or so might include some new money for the farm bill.

Goodlatte, along with Tim Holden (D-Pa.) and Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), Chairman and ranking Republican on the CCER Subcommittee, respectively, also spoke at the event. Goodlatte stressed that the Committee would be drafting the farm bill on a bipartisan basis, noting that farm policy does not tend to polarize along party lines and that most farm bills are bipartisan products.

There was a fair amount of discussion about next week's mark-up at the CCER Subcommittee. What I took away from that discussion is as follows:

--Conservation title: The main issue is money to fund the currently authorized conservation programs. Also, a battle might be brewing with the Senate over funding of the Conservation Security Program (CSP). The Senate wants more; the House is not inclined to provide much funding at all. Also, the House committee might want to shift money into the Wetland Reserve Program (WRP).  

--Credit title: Wasn't discussed.

--Energy title: Holden said the subcommittee would be unveiling a robust energy proposal; and Peterson indicated that the Committee will be able to spend some new money in this title, using for pay-go purposes increases in revenues under a bill passed by the House early this year that created offsets for new energy programs.

--Research title: Don't expect much if any new money for agricultural research, extension, and teaching programs.

Peterson also used the occasion to sketch out the Committee schedule as he sees it now. The next subcommittee to mark up will be the Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry, scheduled to kick off on Thursday, May 24. It's subcommittee consensus language should be available very early next week. The other four subcommittees of the Agriculture Committee will start their mark-ups after Congress returns from the Memorial Day recess on June 2. Peterson expects the subcommittees to complete work, and the full committee to begin its consideration of what the subcommittees will have come up with, later in June, with the goal to finish all committee work by the end of June.

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