The Farm Bill: Consensus Must be Reached

Op-Ed

COLUMN: The Farm Bill: Consensus Must be Reached

As many Maine farmers know well, federal farm support, food assistance, agricultural trade, marketing, and rural development policies are governed by a variety of separate laws. Many of these laws are reevaluated, revised, and renewed every few years in a big legislative package. This package is usually referred to simply as the "Farm Bill."

The last time Congress passed the Farm Bill was in 2002, and many in Congress agree that current programs need to be amended to reflect changing needs and national priorities. This summer, the House of Representatives passed their version of the Farm Bill, which I believe represented a positive step forward. The House legislation was supported by a broad and diverse group of agriculture, environmental and nutrition organizations from across the country.

The bill extends the Milk Income Loss Contract program that benefits thousands of dairy farmers in Maine and throughout New England. New to this year's bill is increased support for specialty crops, which include fruits and vegetables such as potatoes, blueberries, apples, and cranberries - all important to our state. The bill also represents a commitment to increasing nutrition standards by expanding the Food Stamp program, an important service for low-income and rural families.

The House-passed Farm Bill also includes substantial increases in funding for conservation and renewable energy. The bill provides loan guarantees for the development of refineries that process renewable fuels and increases access to conservation programs, directing $4.3 billion towards ranchers and small farmers. It also provides for infrastructure and economic development programs in rural areas.

The bill also makes strides to assure that assistance reaches those farmers that need them most and limits subsidies to big agribusiness. The House-passed bill does this by capping payments to wealthier farmers and includes continued access to loans and support for small farms throughout the country.

Just last week, the U.S. Senate passed their version of the Farm Bill. While I preferred the House-passed bill, I strongly support the Senate bill's inclusion of legislation that I authored which creates a Northern Border Regional Commission.

As I have written in past columns, this Commission would invest $40 million per year — rising to $60 million per year by 2012 — in federal resources for economic development and job creation in the most economically distressed areas of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York.

I first authored the commission bill in 2004, and I was pleased when the House passed it in October with bipartisan support. Because the Senate has yet to act on that bill (H.R. 3246), having it pass as a part of the Farm Bill in the Senate was very positive news. It puts the majority of the Senate on record supporting an idea that will directly help the economy of our state and our region. I applaud our Maine senators for continuing to push for passage of the Northern Border Regional Commission in their chamber.

While passage in the Senate represents a positive step forward, there is still much work to be done. The House passed Farm Bill contains stronger reforms of the commodity support program - something that the President said must be included in any Farm Bill in order to avoid his veto pen.

It is my hope that the House and the Senate can come together and reach consensus on a final product that provides support for Maine farmers, reforms commodity subsidies, and provides for our continued economic development in Maine. I will continue to work with the entire Maine congressional delegation to accomplish these goals in 2008.

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