Peterson explains farm bill complications
October 15, 2013 | 10:49 AM
House Agriculture Committee ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minn., has told the Red River Farm Network that he has concerns about several farm bill issues now that the House leadership has appointed House conferees and the conference can move forward.
Peterson said he and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, are engaged in a “knock-down, drag-out war” over dairy policy and that Boehner increased the size of the conference so that he would have votes to counter the dairy program that Peterson has written.
That dairy policy favored by dairy farmers is in the Senate bill, but it was amended on the House floor to take out the supply management program to which dairy processors objected. Peterson said he told House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., that the amended version of the dairy policy would be bad for California dairy farmers and that Pelosi removed Rep. David Scott, D-Ga., one of the advocates for the dairy processors' preferred version, from the conference committee, even though Scott is a subcommittee ranking member and would normally have been included.
Peterson also said he believes the target-price-based commodity program that he and House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., endorse would make payments to farmers when prices are low, while the Senate shallow loss program “would make payments to landowners when people are making money.”
Finally, Peterson said the Republican leadership's decision to add Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Fla., to the conference committee even though he is not a member of the Agriculture committee raises questions about whether House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., will allow the conference committee to do its work or whether ideology will prevail.
To counter Southerland, however, Pelosi chose Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, to represent her on the conference committee. Fudge is a subcommittee ranking member and is also the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Peterson said he and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, are engaged in a “knock-down, drag-out war” over dairy policy and that Boehner increased the size of the conference so that he would have votes to counter the dairy program that Peterson has written.
That dairy policy favored by dairy farmers is in the Senate bill, but it was amended on the House floor to take out the supply management program to which dairy processors objected. Peterson said he told House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., that the amended version of the dairy policy would be bad for California dairy farmers and that Pelosi removed Rep. David Scott, D-Ga., one of the advocates for the dairy processors' preferred version, from the conference committee, even though Scott is a subcommittee ranking member and would normally have been included.
Peterson also said he believes the target-price-based commodity program that he and House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., endorse would make payments to farmers when prices are low, while the Senate shallow loss program “would make payments to landowners when people are making money.”
Finally, Peterson said the Republican leadership's decision to add Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Fla., to the conference committee even though he is not a member of the Agriculture committee raises questions about whether House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., will allow the conference committee to do its work or whether ideology will prevail.
To counter Southerland, however, Pelosi chose Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, to represent her on the conference committee. Fudge is a subcommittee ranking member and is also the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus.
