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NFU’s Buis calls for action on Farm Bill
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The largest used equipment inventory in the Mid-Atlantic is only a click away. Visit our website by clicking here or visit us at one of our 11 locations throughout MD, DE, VA and PA.
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NFU’s Buis calls for action on Farm Bill
1.29.2008
By CAROL KINSLEY
Staff Reporter
WASHINGTON, D.C. —Time is running out for the 2007 Farm Bill.
There are big differences between the House and Senate versions which were passed last year, yet as of last week, the conference committee members had not been selected. The 2002 Farm Bill has been extended until March 15.
A simple extension of the existing bill for another year, said National Farmers Union President Tom Buis, “would set off a food fight over the money in it.”
He predicted funds would be taken from the Commodity Title to pay for nutrition programs.
In a conference call with reporters on Jan. 25, Buis said he didn’t think a straight extension would be able to garner enough votes.
“The nutrition, conservation, fruits and vegetables, and renewable energy programs are part of why we successfully got a farm bill passed to begin with,” he said. “Without increases in those areas, a straight extension would not pass.”
The White House has threatened to veto any Farm Bill that lacks more stringent limitations on payments to wealthy farmers. Bibus also noted some “very rigid positioning by the White House that if we don’t do a farm bill without new revenue then they will veto the bill.”
Bibus said, “It has been really frustrating to sit here and watch this time pass without meaningful negotiations taking place. ... I would hope that the House and Senate would pass something, send it to the president and if he vetoes it, let him suffer the political consequences.”
The NFU president offered some saber rattling of his own. If Congress can’t override a veto, Bius would prefer to see permanent law to set in.
“I know permanent law is not perfect, but given the alternatives, if we get to that, I think that’s the best bet to move forward,” he said.
The American Agriculture Movement, according to Successful Farming, has already endorsed the idea of just letting the 2002 Farm Bill expire.
The permanent law, passed in 1938 and updated in 1949, had no counter-cyclical program and no direct payments. It did not include at least 19 commodities now covered under farm programs, among them soybeans and sugar beets. Reverting to permanent law also would cause problems for the dairy industry.
Under the old law, loan rates for some of the row crop commodities must be set as a percentage of parity, a level for farm-product prices maintained by governmental support and intended to give farmers the same purchasing power they had in the period from 1910 to 1914.
USDA continues to calculate parity prices, although parity has not been used in farm bills for years. As of November 2007, the parity price for wheat was $11.10 per bushel; rice, $30.10 per bushel; corn, $8.24; sorghum, $7.90; and cotton, $2.10 per pound.