Posted by: Phillip Fraas
May 29, 2007
Topic: REPORTS ON FARM BILL STATUS--First Half of 2007

HOUSE AGRICULTURE COMMITTEE MARK-UPS: The drafting of the 2007 farm bill got off to a good start last week when two subcommittees of the House Committee on Agriculture held mark-up sessions on the titles of the farm bill under their jurisdiction. The Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy, and Research, chaired by Cong. Tim Holden (D.-Pa.), reported out the farm bill titles on--naturally--conservation, credit, energy, and research. The Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry, chaired by Cong. Leonard Boswell (D.-Iowa), reported out the dairy title and several livestock provisions, including a proposed tightening of country-of-origin labeling (COOL) rules.

While some tough decisions, like funding issues, were bumped up to the full Committee for consideration, nonetheless, last week's mark-ups yielded substantial progress as a large chunk of the farm bill was vetted and preliminarily approved.

Look for the House Agriculture Committee to press ahead with mark-ups by its other four subcommittees within the next three weeks. The Committee's time frame for action is so tight because, if it wants to take the farm bill to the floor in July as planned, it will want to complete full committee mark-up in just four weeks--during the week of June 18.

MILC AND DISASTER ASSISTANCE IN SUPPLEMENTAL: A looming problem for the farm bill has been resolved. Until a few days ago, the popular Milk Income Loss Contracts (or MILC) program had been set to expire at the end of August, and thus fall outside the budget baseline for the farm bill, which is calculated on the basis of which programs are in existence on September 30. By not being in the baseline, if Congress wanted to extend MILC in the farm bill, it would have to come up with over $1 billion in new money.  That problem went away with the recent enactment of the Iraq supplemental appropriations bill, which included money to extend the program for five years. The supplemental also included a agricultural disaster aid package that will cost about $3 billion. With that relief headed to farmers, they will not be looking to Congress to include the money in the new farm bill.

HARKIN PUSHES FOR NEW CONSERVATION EFFORT: On the Senate side last week, Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry focused on the conservation title of the farm bill, making the case to reporters for his new Comprehensive Stewardship Incentives Program (CSIP). This program will combine the Conservation Security Program (which Harkin fought hard to get in the 2002 farm bill), the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (the biggest working lands conservation program in terms of dollars actually spent), and the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program into one program, to give farmers the benefit of "one-stop shopping" for farmers seeking conservation assistance.  Because the combined program will increase spending, the issue, once again, is where to find the money to fund it. The answer at this point is far from clear.  

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