Note to Readers: With Congress on recess for the week, we are playing catch-up on our farm bill reporting. This post takes a closer look at farm bill funding issues. A second post covers Senate floor action on the farm bill. Earlier, we posted a review of Senate and House Agriculture Committee markups on the […]
Farm Bill
Farm Bill Floor Action Begins
Note to Readers: With Congress on recess for the week, we are playing catch-up on our farm bill reporting. This post covers a range of topics, including Senate floor action on the farm bill. A second post takes a closer look at farm bill funding issues. Earlier, we posted a review of Senate and House […]
Smithfield Buyout Raises Fair Competition Concerns
A bid by Shuanghui International, also known as Shineway, to purchase Smithfield Foods for $4.7 billion became national news this week. Shuanghui is the majority shareholder of China’s largest meat processor and, according to the Wall Street Journal, sources most of its products from private farmers – a practice that has been scrutinized in China […]
Key Amendments Debated During Farm Bill Markups This Week
Both the Senate and House Agriculture Committees held their respective committee “markup” sessions this week. Initial drafts of the 2013 Farm Bill written mainly by the Chairs and Ranking Members of each committee were presented to members and modified through several hours of debate and committee votes through the amendment process. While the Senate markup […]
2013 Farm Bill Doubleheader
Next week is a big week for the 2013 Farm Bill. Both the House and the Senate Agriculture Committees will be debating and voting on their respective versions of the 2013 Farm Bill next week. The Senate Agriculture Committee will markup its farm bill on Tuesday, May 14, at 10 AM. Chairwoman Stabenow (D-MI) released […]
Representatives Introduce Bill to Improve Farm Bill Conservation Programs
Today, Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), along with eleven additional cosponsors, introduced a bill to improve current farm conservation programs. The Balancing Food, Farm, and the Environment Act (H.R. 1890) aims to help farmers and ranchers improve their environmental performance and reward them for the conservation benefits they produce. The other cosponsors of the bill are Representatives […]
Six Former USDA Officials Send Letter on Conservation Accountability
On Tuesday, May 7, six former Chiefs of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) delivered a letter to the House and Senate Agriculture Committees, urging them to reattach conservation accountability measures to federal crop insurance premium subsidies. In the letter, former NRCS Chiefs Dave White (2009-2012), Arlen Lancaster (2006-2009), Bruce Knight (2002-2006), Pearlie Reed (1998-2002), Paul […]
Farmers and Ranchers Awarded Value-Added Grants for New Markets and Products
On May 1, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced Value-Added Producer Grant Program (VAPG) awards to over 110 agricultural producers. The grant awards totaled nearly $16.8 million. The funding came from the $14 million appropriation for VAPG in the FY 2012 Appropriations Bill as well as $2.8 million from earlier years. The Value-Added Producer Grants (VAPG) […]
Lawmakers Announce Plans for 2013 Farm Bill
This week, Agriculture Committee leaders announced plans for starting the 2013 Farm Bill process. Because a new Congress started this year, Congress cannot pick up where it left off with the farm bill last year and must start the process over again. Currently, USDA is operating under an awful 9-month farm bill extension that Congress […]
Bill to Boost Opportunities for Beginning Farmers Introduced
Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) along with nine of his colleagues, and Representative Tim Walz (D-MN) together with Reps. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE), Chris Gibson (R-NY), and Collin Peterson (D-MN) have just introduced the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Opportunity Act of 2013. The Senate bill is number is S. 837 and the House bill number is H.R. […]
Guest Post: An Alabama Farmer’s Perspective on Policies that Promote Healthy Food and Healthy Economies
Today on Capitol Hill, farmers, business owners and community advocates shared their stories and knowledge of critical farm bill programs with Congressional staff. Sponsored by the Congressional Tri-Caucus – made up of Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) – the collaborative briefing “Policies that […]
Senators Introduce Bill to Protect Prime Grasslands
On Thursday, April 25, Senators John Thune (R-SD) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), along with four additional cosponsors, introduced bipartisan legislation that would protect our nation’s remaining native prairies and prime grasslands. Additional cosponsors of the bill include Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Tom Harkin (D-IA), and Mike Johanns (R-NE). The Sodsaver Prairie Protection Act […]
GO-FARM Legislation Re-Introduced: New Loan Fund to Support Local Farms and Jobs
Guest Blog — We want to thank Bob Junk, Local Economy Manager with Fay-Penn Economic Development Council for preparing this blog post. Fay-Penn is an NSAC member organization and Bob co-chairs our Marketing, Food Systems, and Rural Development committee. Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr. (D-PA) has re-introduced the Growing Opportunities for Agriculture and Responding to […]
President’s 2014 Budget: Overview and Department of Agriculture
On Wednesday, April 10, President Obama released his budget request for Fiscal Year (FY) 2014. In this year’s ongoing budget saga, the White House is billing its proposal as a step towards reaching a “grand bargain” with Republicans over taxes and spending. (For more on the “grand bargain,” see a previous blog post.) Over ten weeks […]
Legislation to Remove Barriers to Local Farms and Food
Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Representative Chellie Pingree of Maine today introduced their Local Farms, Food, and Jobs Act of 2013 (S. 679 and H.R. 1414). The bill was previously introduced in 2011 and parts of the bill were included in the five-year farm bills that were worked on, but not finalized, in the […]
Nutrient Pollution Still Harms Our Nation’s Rivers and Streams
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released for comment a draft report entitled National Rivers and Streams Assessment 2008-2009 (Draft NRSA). Comments on the Draft NRSA are due May 9, 2013. For more information on submitting comments, you can download the Federal Register notice for the comment period. The major findings of the Draft […]
Is There a Mega Budget Deal Coming?
At the end of December, Congress extended the current farm bill, but without renewed funding for beginning, minority, organic, specialty crop, and local food farmers; renewable energy; economic development; and disaster assistance. They also punted automatic across-the-board budget cuts until March 1. Then, at the end of January, Congress punted debate over the debt ceiling […]
Ten-Year Budget Plans Move Forward
On Thursday, March 21, the House voted 221-207 to pass its FY 2014 budget resolution, which provides a spending blueprint for the next ten years. The vote saw 10 Republicans join all of the Democrats in opposition. The Senate is currently debating its own FY 2014 budget resolution and voting on lots of amendments. The […]
Budget Blueprints Outline Radically Different Paths for New Farm Bill
This week, both the House Budget Committee and the Senate Budget Committee released their respective budget resolutions for fiscal year (FY) 2014. A budget resolution is a non-binding document that outlines a framework for budgeting decisions in the next fiscal year. Normally, the House and the Senate consider budget resolutions after the President has submitted […]
Congress Prepares for Budget Battle as Deadlines Loom
This week and next, the House and Senate move closer to finalizing a funding bill for the remainder of FY 2013. At the same time, both chambers prepare to mark up their respective FY 2014 budget resolutions before an April 15 deadline. Sequestration officially went into effect on March 1, and the current government-funding bill […]
Farmers Travel to DC to Speak Out on Sustainable Agriculture Programs
On March 4 and 5, 60 independent family farmers, ranchers, and sustainable agriculture advocates from 24 states met with more than 105 legislative offices in Washington DC. Participants urged Congress to restore funding for critical sustainable agriculture programs and pass a farm bill that advances the sustainability of agriculture, rural communities, food systems, and natural […]
Sequester and Beyond – What it Means for Food and Agriculture
Yesterday, the Senate voted 51-49 on the Mikulski-Murray-Reid bill to replace the across-the-board automatic budget cuts (sequestration) of $85 billion for the current year, and reduce the deficit by $110 billion. The measure failed because under Senate filibuster rules, a simple majority is not sufficient and a 60-vote super majority is needed to pass most […]
USDA Makes Progress on Improving Crop Insurance for Organic Farmers
USDA’s Risk Management Agency this week announced the removal, starting in 2014, of the five percent premium surcharge assessed against all organic farmers seeking federal crop insurance. This penalty against organic farming has been an issue NSAC has campaigned against for nearly a decade and we are delighted to finally report significant progress. The change […]
Farm Bills from Last Year Save Less Money Now
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the official scorekeeper for the funding implications of all legislation, today released a new projection of what the Senate-passed and House Agriculture Committee-passed farm bills from 2012 would cost if they were to be enacted, without changes, in 2013. According to CBO, the Senate farm bill from last year, if […]