Farm Bill retains PILT another year
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February 4, 2014 |
Idaho Senator Mike Crapo joined a bipartisan
majority in the U.S. Senate and voted to approve
the House-passed Agricultural Act of 2014
conference report, commonly known as the Farm
Bill.
The bill, which passed 68-32, concludes a long
process that began last year when the House and
Senate passed separate versions.
A conference committee made up of members of the
House and Senate has been working for the last
several months to iron out the differences and
come to a final agreement. All four members of
the Idaho Congressional Delegation voted to
support the final agreement.
“Today is a great day for Idaho’s agriculture
and forest industries throughout our state,”
said Crapo. “In all, the Farm Bill consolidates
the number of conservation programs by half,
slashes $23 billion in federal spending by
ending direct payments and streamlines other
duplicative federal programs.
“Unfortunately, an opportunity was missed to
enact even more reforms that extend to the
bottom-line spending. Specifically, Idaho and
American agriculture producers have stepped up
to make sacrifices that will lower spending and
contribute to deficit reduction, but the
nutrition title, which comprises approximately
three quarters of the bill’s total price tag,
should have received much more scrutiny.
“The conference report also kept intact
redundant permitting requirements relating to
aquatic pesticides; costly and burdensome
country-of-origin labeling requirements; and the
duplicative U.S. Department of Agriculture’s
catfish inspection program, which the Government
Accountability Office singled out as a high risk
for waste, fraud and abuse. I am concerned that
Idaho producers may face unprecedented costs and
international trade retaliations as a result of
these provisions.
“While far from perfect, this bill offers
much-needed reforms to strengthen risk
management tools and is a far-cry from the
status quo. Idaho’s agricultural community needs
a farm bill, and this legislation will help
producers to continue providing a safe and
abundant food supply.”
Crapo has worked with the leadership of the
conference committee and numerous other
colleagues to include provisions essential to
Idaho in the final version:
* Keeping the U.S. sugar program intact to give Idaho’s sugarbeet
producers as well as sugar growers throughout
the country the tools they need to combat the
trade-distorting subsidies that other nations
implement for otherwise uncompetitive
industries;
* Modernizing the U.S. dairy industry to provide sound risk
management tools to balance supply and demand;
* Urging committee leadership to preserve the inclusion of a pulse
crops provision that will create a five-year
pilot program to promote the use of pulse crops
— dry beans, dry peas, lentils and chickpeas —
in school lunch programs. Additionally, the bill
finally authorizes the Pulse Health Initiative,
which Crapo has long championed, that will
support expanded research into the health and
nutritional benefits of pulse crops;
* Securing language, authored by Crapo and Senator Ron Wyden
(D-Oregon), that reaffirms positions taken by
the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S.
Supreme Court that forest roads used for logging
activities will not be threatened by Clean Water
Act litigation over water discharge permits as
initially intended by Congress;
* And, leading a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers from western
states in calling for the Payments in Lieu of
Taxes, or PILT, program to be reauthorized for
one year using savings in the bill to offset the
cost.
“Thanks to hard work of the forest and timber
industry along with farmers and ranchers, Idaho
products are growing in importance throughout
the Pacific northwest and competing in a global
economy. The 2014 Farm Bill maintains the sugar
program that is a vital contributor to Idaho
sugarbeet growers’ ability to compete; ensures
that Idaho will remain a top dairy state by
providing margin insurance protection, and
creates a pilot program and research
opportunities that will promote the use of pulse
crops, which is already a $20 million industry
for our state, according to USDA. After years of
litigation and hardships for rural timber
communities, this bill states that the Clean
Water Act was never intended to regulate
stormwater runoff on Idaho’s forest roads.
Finally, Idaho’s local communities depend on
PILT funding to help provide for schools, road
maintenance and law enforcement. With the
inclusion of a reauthorization of one-year of
full PILT funding, Idaho’s counties will know
they will be able to provide these essential
services.
“The importance of the Farm Bill to Idaho cannot
be overstated. But, even with its passage, we
must continue to find ways to implement further
market-based reforms that create an environment
for growth, eliminate unnecessary obstacles for
producers and continue to reduce the budget
deficit,” Crapo concluded. |
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