Ag program cuts should be a hot topic; Congress to decide how to slash $3 billion in USDA programs during the next five years

WASHINGTON - What should be the hottest topic for farmers when they see their members of Congress in August?

Instead of cattle crossing the Canadian border or Asian soybean rust, something that's been kept quiet is how Congress will decide by Sept. 16 to cut $3 billion in Agriculture Department programs during the next five years including $173 million in the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.

These cuts will affect farm subsidies, conservation programs and nutrition programs, particularly food stamps. The question is how they will affect individual farmers and particular programs. The cuts also will have different impacts on different commodities because each commodity program is structured in its own way.

Cutting the deficit

Congress decided earlier this year to require $3 billion in cuts in mandatory Agriculture Department programs from 2006 to 2010 as part of the effort to cut the federal deficit. Mandatory programs are those under which the government has to pay out the money to people who are eligible for it. This includes farm subsidies, conservation programs, food stamps, export credit programs and crop insurance.

The American Farm Bureau Federation has suggested that cuts in agriculture programs be proportional to each program's percentage of the USDA budget. Under the Farm Bureau proposal

$1.7 billion of the $3 billion would come from nutrition programs, primarily food stamps. But nutrition groups have said poor people's food needs should get a higher priority than other USDA spending and have said they might not encourage urban members of the House to vote for the2007 farm bill if nutrition programs take big cuts.

Committee meeting

At a House Agriculture Committee meeting July 27, Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., told House Agriculture Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., he was 'terribly concerned' about the process through which the committee is going to come up with $3 billion in budget cuts and that the full House Agriculture Committee should be involved.

But Goodlatte, R-Va., said that he has established, with the agreement of House Agriculture ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minn., an ad hoc committee of members to discuss the issue and present a proposal to the full committee before the Sept. 16 deadline. Goodlatte said the members of his ad hoc committee would be himself, Peterson, subcommittee chairmen, subcommittee ranking members, and Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio and Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif. The ad hoc panel sessions would be open to congressional staff, but not to the public, Goodlatte said.

Pomeroy told Goodlatte he believes there should be hearings on the impact of budget cuts on the various USDA programs, but Goodlatte told Pomeroy he had proposed a process 'of enormity' and that he would have to wait for those hearings until the next farm bill. Goodlatte said he hopes the ad hoc panel would operate by consensus and that the full committee would have a chance to vote on the cuts. Peterson told reporters the panel was expected to meet July 28 before Congress left for a break until after Labor Day.

Eager for reductions

Pomeroy also said that he was concerned about a report in a recent Washington Post editorial that said Goodlatte is 'eager for bigger reductions' in food stamps than Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and the Bush administration have pro posed.

Pomeroy said he believes Goodlatte plans to take 50 percent of the $3 billion budget cut in agriculture programs out of federal nutrition programs. Goodlatte replied that food stamps make up 57 to 58 percent of the USDA budget, but that he was not in a position to comment on the cut that nutrition programs would take. Pomeroy told reporters after the meeting that he had given Goodlatte's unwillingness 'to disavow' plans for a big cut in food stamps means 'the long knives are out for food stamps.'

Meanwhile, the Food Bank of Iowa announced in a news release that Senate Agriculture ranking member Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, had said in a visit July22 that he opposes all cuts to food stamps in budget reconciliation. A Harkin aide said Harkin had made the statement but added that he opposes all cuts in the agriculture budget.