In the early morning of Tuesday, April 12, Congress released a draft of the 6-month continuing resolution (CR), agreed to by House and Senate Democrats and Republicans late last night. The CR would cut $42 billion relative to FY 2010 levels for non-defense spending, but couples that with a $4 billion increase in defense spending, […]
Rural Development
Attend the National Conference on Rural Wealth Creation and Livelihoods in October
The Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Ford Foundation are convening a National Conference and Conversation on Rural Wealth Creation and Livelihoods, October 3 – 5, 2011, in Washington, D.C. This conference will bring together researchers, practitioners and policy-makers who are working on regional and rural development issues to […]
House Holds Appropriations Hearing on Rural Development
On Thursday morning, March 31, the House Subcommittee on Agriculture Appropriations held a hearing on Rural Development in Fiscal Year 2012. The hearing started with general remarks from subcommittee members regarding concern about the state of rural America, including a note that USDA Secretary Vilsack previously testified to the Subcommittee that rural America has been […]
Congress Passes 3-Week Budget Extension
On Thursday, March 17, the Senate passed a three-week continuing resolution, which extends fiscal year (FY) 2010 federal funding levels until April 8. The House passed companion legislation on Tuesday, March 15, so the bill will now go to the President’s desk for his signature. As we reported in an earlier blog post, the three-week […]
Eight Organizations Receive Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program Funds
Last week the USDA announced new awards under the Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program (RMAP). A component of the agency’s Rural Development work since passage of the 2008 Farm Bill, RMAP awards loans and grants to Microenterprise Development Organizations (MDOs). These MDOs then use their RMAP funds to provide training and technical assistance to and to […]
Secretary Vilsack Releases Recovery Act Report
On Wednesday March 9, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the released of the Investments report on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act). The report, entitled The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: Working for Rural Communities, shows that the investments are renewing the Nation’s rural areas and providing benefits to the rural […]
House Holds Two Hearings on Agriculture Appropriations
On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies held two hearings with top officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). On Tuesday, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, along with Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan, Chief Economist Joe Glauber, and USDA Budget […]
GAO Report Highlights Potential Ethanol, Commodity Program Budget Cuts
On Tuesday, March 1, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its first annual report to Congress in response to a new statutory requirement to identify federal programs, agencies, offices, and initiatives, either within departments or government wide, which have duplicative goals or activities. The objectives of the report are to: (1) identify federal programs […]
Over 185 Groups Urge Congress to Oppose H.R. 1 Cuts to Sustainable Agriculture
On Tuesday, March 1, NSAC delivered two letters to Senate offices in opposition to the sustainable agriculture cuts contained in H.R. 1, the House-passed Continuing Resolution (CR). The first letter was signed by 154 grassroots organizations from throughout the country, while the second letter was signed by 35 national conservation organizations. The common thread, running […]
2009 On-Farm Renewable Energy Production Survey
On Wednesday, February 23, USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) released the results of the 2009 survey on the contribution of America’s farms and ranches in the production of renewable energy. Conducted as a follow-on to the most recent Census of Agriculture, the survey focused on three principal renewable energy systems: solar panels, wind turbines, […]
ERS Atlas of Rural and Small-Town America
USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) recently released the Atlas of Rural and Small-Town America data set. The tool, an interactive mapping application, provides spatial information (national to county-level) of socioeconomic factors on four broad categories of : People— county demographic profiles including age, race/ethnicity, education, migration and immigration, household size and family composition (from the from […]
USDA Publishes Interim Rule for Value-Added Producer Grants
In June 2010, the USDA solicited public comments on the proposed rule for implementation of the Value-Added Producer Grant (VAPG) program. This morning, after months of anticipation, the agency released the interim final rule. Later this morning USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan will hold a press call regarding the interim rule for VAPG. With the […]
House Approves $60 Billion in Budget Cuts
In the early hours of Saturday, February 19, the House of Representatives approved on a near party-line 235-189 vote the government funding bill for the last half of fiscal year 2011. The bill, H.R. 1, would slash roughly $60 billion from the federal budget relative to fiscal year 2010 spending. Three Republicans voted against the […]
America’s Great Outdoors Initiative to Support Conservation and Working Lands
On February 16, 2011, President Obama released a report outlining the Administration’s plan to enhance conservation of public and private lands through the America’s Great Outdoors (AGO) Initiative. The AGO Initiative is a partnership between the Department of Agriculture (USDA ), Department of the Interior (DOI), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and White House Council on […]
Obama USDA Budget Proposal a Mixed Bag
On Monday, February 14, President Obama submitted his budget request to Congress for Fiscal Year (FY) 2012. For sustainable agriculture interests, the budget proposal is a mixed bag, with big cuts to farm bill conservation programs, though mostly good news on discretionary spending accounts. Mandatory Farm Bill Spending President Obama’s proposed budget calls for deep, […]
House GOP Funding Proposal Would Cut NSAC Priority Programs
Post updated 2/15/11 Following a revolt by some of their rank and file on Thursday, House Republican leaders on Friday night released their draft bill to cut government funding for the remainder of the fiscal year that end September 3 by a significantly larger amount then they planned for earlier in the week. The bill […]
Taxpayers Believe More Should be Spent on Food Safety, Conservation, Reseach, Rural Development
A new study, to be presented at the Southern Agricultural Economics Association 2011 Annual Meeting in February, finds that taxpayers believe that less money should be spent on direct payments, price supports, and crop insurance, while more should be directed toward food safety, natural resource conservation, research and education, and rural development. The paper was […]
House Agriculture Committee Re-Organizes
As often happens following elections that shift the party in the majority, the new Republican leadership of the House Agriculture Committee reorganized the panel’s subcommittees. As we previously have reported, Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK) is the new Chair of the Full Committee, and former Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) has been named Vice Chair. There are […]
Congress Extends FY2010 Budget through March 4, 2011
Late on Tuesday, December 21, Congress passed a Continuing Resolution (CR) scheduled to expire on March 4, 2011, which will fund most federal government agencies at the level provided in their FY2010 Appropriations Bills. The Senate voted 79-16 on Sunday, December 19 to amend the House-passed CR (H.R. 3082). The amended CR then went to […]
Lame Duck Appears Headed for End with No Appropriations or Food Safety Bills
In the early evening on December 16, Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) pulled the pending omnibus appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2011 when it became clear that no Republicans would vote for it. Earlier in the week, at least five and possibly as many as nine Republicans were indicating privately they would support the […]
Senate Omnibus Appropriations Bill Released
(Updated Version — 12/15/10 — of Original Post) The Senate Appropriations Committee released the long-awaited omnibus, government-wide appropriations bill the afternoon of December 14. The $1.1 trillion bill is a less than two percent increase over FY 2010, $26 billion less than what the Obama Administration requested in February, $18 billion more than the long-term […]
Local Food, Rural Development in New Issue of USDA’s “Amber Waves”
USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) has released the December issue of its quarterly publication, Amber Waves. This issue has several articles that might be of interest to followers of NSAC’s work, as the articles address issues such as rural development, farm labor, and local food systems. Click here to access the December issue of Amber […]
Deficit Commission Proposes $3 Billion in Cuts to Farm Subsidies, CSP
Yesterday, the two co-chairs of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, an 18-member bipartisan panel commissioned by President Obama in February 2010, released a draft plan to slow the growth of the federal budget deficit. As expected, the “trial balloon” report offers a contradictory set of recommendations; the commission’s chairs for instance propose […]
USDA Announces Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program Awardees
On Thursday, October 28, USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan announced the 75 awardees of grant and loan funds from USDA’s Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program (RMAP). Merrigan made the announcement in Lexington, Kentucky, one of 36 states in which projects will receive funding. “This program creates opportunities for small businesses to prosper by giving them access […]