Farm bill extension sets stage for difficult 2013
January 01, 2013 | 03:40 PM
By JERRY HAGSTROM
When the Senate passed the fiscal cliff bill early today, it included a farm bill extension that will stop an increase in milk prices, but the measure also showed how agriculture’s power has diminished in Washington and how difficult it may be to pass a new five-year bill in 2013.
The House has not yet acted on the measure and early indications are that House Republicans are having a hard time accepting the bill, even though the Senate voted for it 89 to 8. But House members are under tremendous pressure to resolve the fiscal cliff issue before the stock markets open on Wednesday.
The farm bill extension, which was negotiated by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Vice President Joe Biden, was a victory for southern farm interests because it fully extends the direct payments program for fiscal 2013, although if Congress passes a new farm bill before October, those payments would never be made.
It is also a victory for dairy processors over dairy farmers because it does not include the dairy market stabilization program that the National Milk Producers Federation and House Agriculture Committee ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minn., sought, but that the International Dairy Foods Association and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, had opposed.
The extension is also a victory in an odd way for anti-hunger advocates and a failure for critics of food stamps, (now formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP). The extension appears to make no changes to the food stamp program even though the Senate had proposed a small cut and the House Agriculture Committee had proposed a much larger cut.
Anti-hunger advocates and the White House opposed those cuts. Food stamps make up more than 70 percent of the Agriculture Department budget.
The way that McConnell and Boehner took charge of the situation and ignored the package that Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., put together was shocking, as was the willingness of the White House and House Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to agree to it.
But the extension is also the end result of a difficult and failed year-long effort to pass a farm bill that was marked by most farmers’ prosperity, by regional divisions within agriculture over the shape of the crop program, by reformers’ campaigns against traditional programs, and by tea party advocates’ determination to make big cuts to food stamps.
In addition, rural America proved it was out of sync with the rest of the country when polls showed that 59 percent of rural Americans voted for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, while President Barack Obama won re-election.
In an extensive analysis of the situation, Politico writer David Rogers noted today that, “Beyond dairy, the outcome is a wake-up call to the entire farm lobby of its weakened political standing in Washington and need to avoid so much infighting.”
It was somewhat surprising that the Democratic senators and the White House went along with the deal, because it contained none of the reforms that they had promoted and did not fund local and organic programs or provide disaster aid, but it was a minor factor in the overall deal. In its fact statement on the fiscal cliff bill released today, the White House gave the farm bill extension one line at the end, noting that it will prevent dairy prices from going up.
Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.
Stabenow voted for the bill and said in a statement:
“It is critically important that the U.S. Senate has come together to prevent tax increases on middle class families and small businesses, extend unemployment benefits for those struggling to find a job, and end tax breaks for millionaires our country can no longer afford. This agreement accomplishes that, providing certainty for families and businesses and allowing our economic recovery to continue.
But she added, “However, I am deeply concerned that Republican Leader Mitch McConnell insisted on including an incomplete farm bill extension that ends funding for important parts of the bill, including disaster assistance, while continuing costly taxpayer subsidies that were ended in the farm bill passed by the Senate.”
“Rather than embrace the Senate’s bipartisan farm bill which cuts $24 billion in spending and creates certainty for our agriculture economy, Sen. McConnell insisted on a partial extension that reforms nothing, provides no deficit reduction, and hurts many areas of our agriculture economy,” she said. “The Senate Agriculture Committee will once again begin work in the new year to enact a new farm bill that works for our farmers and rural communities as well as American taxpayers.”
McConnell spokesman Michael Brumas defended McConnell’s move, the Associated Press reported.
“Sen. McConnell put forward a bipartisan, responsible solution that averted the dairy cliff and provided certainty to farmers for the next year without costing taxpayers a dime,” Brumas said.
Senate Agriculture Committee ranking member Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said he was “pleased” that the bill included a farm bill extension through September 30.
“While this extension is not the best possible bill, I believe it is the best bill possible at this time,” Roberts said. “It provides consumers certainty by avoiding the dairy cliff, and it provides certainty to our producers and their lenders as Congress continues work on a farm bill in 2013.”
Jerry Kozak
The bill extends the Milk Income Loss Contract program, which should provide some payments to dairy producers, but National Milk Producers Federation President and CEO Jerry Kozak said the vote “is a devastating blow to the nation’s dairy farmers.”
“After months of inaction, the plan that passed overnight as part of the fiscal cliff package amounts to shoving farmers over the dairy cliff without providing any safety net below,” Kozak said.
He noted that the House is also considering a farm bill extension that would not include the new dairy program.
“Dairy farmers across the country have united behind the Dairy Security Act provisions in the original farm bills that have already been approved by the full Senate, and by the House Agriculture Committee,” Kozak said.
“These stop-gap efforts don’t even qualify as kicking the can down the road. It’s little more than a New Year’s Day, hair-of-the-dog stab at temporarily putting off decisions that should have been made in 2012 about how to move farm policy forward, not offer more of the same.”
He also noted that the Senate and the House Agriculture Committee had passed the Dairy Security Act as part of a larger farm bill.
“Despite the progress made in 2012 on the farm bill, we’re starting 2013 on a bad note,” Kozak said. “We oppose any farm bill extension of any duration that does not contain the Dairy Security Act, and resolve to work this year on achieving that as a long-term goal.”
The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, which represents smaller, environmentally-minded farmers, said, “The farm bill extension deal reached in negotiations between Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Vice President Joe Biden is a disaster for farmers and the American people.”
“The deal is blatantly anti-reform,” NSAC continued.
“The full Senate and the House Agriculture Committee earlier this year agreed to permanently eliminate direct payment subsidies for commodity production regardless of price and income conditions, yet the deal would lock in those egregious subsidies for another full year at a $5 billion price tag,” the NSAC statement said.
“On the other hand, many smaller, targeted programs to fund farm and food system reform and rural jobs, included in a weekend agreement between Senate Agriculture Chair Debbie Stabenow and House Agriculture Chair Frank Lucas, were left out completely. Also left out of the final deal is any workable dairy policy for the next year and any disaster aid for livestock and fruit producers.
“The deal also has the effect of keeping farmers from being able to improve soil and water conservation through enrollment in the Conservation Stewardship Program at the present time.
“We are extremely disappointed in the Republican leader for proposing this deal and in the White House for accepting it. The message is unmistakable — direct commodity subsidies, despite high market prices, are sacrosanct, while the rest of agriculture and the rest of rural America can simply drop dead.”
NSAC did commend the Agriculture committee leadership “for trying to pass a more responsible extension measure, and on behalf of our member organizations and the farmers they represent, we recommit ourselves to getting a true farm and food bill reform measure passed in 2013.”
When the Senate passed the fiscal cliff bill early today, it included a farm bill extension that will stop an increase in milk prices, but the measure also showed how agriculture’s power has diminished in Washington and how difficult it may be to pass a new five-year bill in 2013.
The House has not yet acted on the measure and early indications are that House Republicans are having a hard time accepting the bill, even though the Senate voted for it 89 to 8. But House members are under tremendous pressure to resolve the fiscal cliff issue before the stock markets open on Wednesday.
The farm bill extension, which was negotiated by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Vice President Joe Biden, was a victory for southern farm interests because it fully extends the direct payments program for fiscal 2013, although if Congress passes a new farm bill before October, those payments would never be made.
It is also a victory for dairy processors over dairy farmers because it does not include the dairy market stabilization program that the National Milk Producers Federation and House Agriculture Committee ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minn., sought, but that the International Dairy Foods Association and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, had opposed.
The extension is also a victory in an odd way for anti-hunger advocates and a failure for critics of food stamps, (now formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP). The extension appears to make no changes to the food stamp program even though the Senate had proposed a small cut and the House Agriculture Committee had proposed a much larger cut.
Anti-hunger advocates and the White House opposed those cuts. Food stamps make up more than 70 percent of the Agriculture Department budget.
The way that McConnell and Boehner took charge of the situation and ignored the package that Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., put together was shocking, as was the willingness of the White House and House Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to agree to it.
But the extension is also the end result of a difficult and failed year-long effort to pass a farm bill that was marked by most farmers’ prosperity, by regional divisions within agriculture over the shape of the crop program, by reformers’ campaigns against traditional programs, and by tea party advocates’ determination to make big cuts to food stamps.
In addition, rural America proved it was out of sync with the rest of the country when polls showed that 59 percent of rural Americans voted for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, while President Barack Obama won re-election.
In an extensive analysis of the situation, Politico writer David Rogers noted today that, “Beyond dairy, the outcome is a wake-up call to the entire farm lobby of its weakened political standing in Washington and need to avoid so much infighting.”
It was somewhat surprising that the Democratic senators and the White House went along with the deal, because it contained none of the reforms that they had promoted and did not fund local and organic programs or provide disaster aid, but it was a minor factor in the overall deal. In its fact statement on the fiscal cliff bill released today, the White House gave the farm bill extension one line at the end, noting that it will prevent dairy prices from going up.
Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.
Stabenow voted for the bill and said in a statement:
“It is critically important that the U.S. Senate has come together to prevent tax increases on middle class families and small businesses, extend unemployment benefits for those struggling to find a job, and end tax breaks for millionaires our country can no longer afford. This agreement accomplishes that, providing certainty for families and businesses and allowing our economic recovery to continue.
But she added, “However, I am deeply concerned that Republican Leader Mitch McConnell insisted on including an incomplete farm bill extension that ends funding for important parts of the bill, including disaster assistance, while continuing costly taxpayer subsidies that were ended in the farm bill passed by the Senate.”
“Rather than embrace the Senate’s bipartisan farm bill which cuts $24 billion in spending and creates certainty for our agriculture economy, Sen. McConnell insisted on a partial extension that reforms nothing, provides no deficit reduction, and hurts many areas of our agriculture economy,” she said. “The Senate Agriculture Committee will once again begin work in the new year to enact a new farm bill that works for our farmers and rural communities as well as American taxpayers.”
McConnell spokesman Michael Brumas defended McConnell’s move, the Associated Press reported.
“Sen. McConnell put forward a bipartisan, responsible solution that averted the dairy cliff and provided certainty to farmers for the next year without costing taxpayers a dime,” Brumas said.
Senate Agriculture Committee ranking member Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said he was “pleased” that the bill included a farm bill extension through September 30.
“While this extension is not the best possible bill, I believe it is the best bill possible at this time,” Roberts said. “It provides consumers certainty by avoiding the dairy cliff, and it provides certainty to our producers and their lenders as Congress continues work on a farm bill in 2013.”
Jerry Kozak
The bill extends the Milk Income Loss Contract program, which should provide some payments to dairy producers, but National Milk Producers Federation President and CEO Jerry Kozak said the vote “is a devastating blow to the nation’s dairy farmers.”
“After months of inaction, the plan that passed overnight as part of the fiscal cliff package amounts to shoving farmers over the dairy cliff without providing any safety net below,” Kozak said.
He noted that the House is also considering a farm bill extension that would not include the new dairy program.
“Dairy farmers across the country have united behind the Dairy Security Act provisions in the original farm bills that have already been approved by the full Senate, and by the House Agriculture Committee,” Kozak said.
“These stop-gap efforts don’t even qualify as kicking the can down the road. It’s little more than a New Year’s Day, hair-of-the-dog stab at temporarily putting off decisions that should have been made in 2012 about how to move farm policy forward, not offer more of the same.”
He also noted that the Senate and the House Agriculture Committee had passed the Dairy Security Act as part of a larger farm bill.
“Despite the progress made in 2012 on the farm bill, we’re starting 2013 on a bad note,” Kozak said. “We oppose any farm bill extension of any duration that does not contain the Dairy Security Act, and resolve to work this year on achieving that as a long-term goal.”
The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, which represents smaller, environmentally-minded farmers, said, “The farm bill extension deal reached in negotiations between Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Vice President Joe Biden is a disaster for farmers and the American people.”
“The deal is blatantly anti-reform,” NSAC continued.
“The full Senate and the House Agriculture Committee earlier this year agreed to permanently eliminate direct payment subsidies for commodity production regardless of price and income conditions, yet the deal would lock in those egregious subsidies for another full year at a $5 billion price tag,” the NSAC statement said.
“On the other hand, many smaller, targeted programs to fund farm and food system reform and rural jobs, included in a weekend agreement between Senate Agriculture Chair Debbie Stabenow and House Agriculture Chair Frank Lucas, were left out completely. Also left out of the final deal is any workable dairy policy for the next year and any disaster aid for livestock and fruit producers.
“The deal also has the effect of keeping farmers from being able to improve soil and water conservation through enrollment in the Conservation Stewardship Program at the present time.
“We are extremely disappointed in the Republican leader for proposing this deal and in the White House for accepting it. The message is unmistakable — direct commodity subsidies, despite high market prices, are sacrosanct, while the rest of agriculture and the rest of rural America can simply drop dead.”
NSAC did commend the Agriculture committee leadership “for trying to pass a more responsible extension measure, and on behalf of our member organizations and the farmers they represent, we recommit ourselves to getting a true farm and food bill reform measure passed in 2013.”
- H.R. 8 – American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 – As amended and passed in the Senate January 1, 2013
- Congressional Budget Office: Estimate of the Budgetary Effects of H.R. 8, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, as passed by the Senate on January 1, 2013
- White House Fact Sheet— The Tax Agreement: A Victory for Middle-Class Families & the Economy
- Politico: Fiscal cliff deal includes farm bill extension
