Climate Issues
John M. Broder reported in today’s New York Times that, “The senators who emerged from a White House meeting with President Obama on energy policy on Tuesday made no effort to paper over the large differences that remain between them.
“Democrats continued to insist on putting some sort of price on greenhouse gas emissions; Republicans continued to insist that to do so would be to impose a tax that would smother the economy.”
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Farm Bill: Hearings
The House Agriculture Committee held a field hearing in North Carolina yesterday to review U.S. agriculture policy, as the Committee begins the process of writing the 2012 Farm Bill.
A House Ag Committee news release from yesterday pointed out that, “This is the ninth in a series of field hearings scheduled across the country to consider new ideas regarding federal food and farm policy. Four Members of Congress attended today’s hearing and heard testimony from eight witnesses on a variety of farm policy issues.”
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Farm Bill: Hearings
The House Agriculture Committee continues to review U.S. farm policy in advance of the 2012 Farm Bill at a field hearing this morning in North Carolina.
The Committee has been exploring issues regarding the next Farm Bill in a series of hearings that have taken place since late April.
Most recently, on Thursday, the House Agriculture Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management heard from a number of commodity organizations regarding perspectives on U.S. farm safety net programs, an unofficial FarmPolicy.com transcript of this hearing is available here.
Recall that the Senate Agriculture Committee will also hold the first of four hearings regarding Farm Bill reauthorization on Wednesday in Washington, D.C.
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Farm Bill Issues
Bloomberg writer Alan Bjerga reported yesterday that, “Growers of corn, cotton and other crops may have to accept reduced subsidies in the next farm bill as budget-cutting becomes necessary to contain record deficits, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson said.
“‘We’re not going to have any new money; we’ll probably have less money,’ the Minnesota Democrat said today at a hearing in Washington of the House Agriculture subcommittee that oversees commodity programs. ‘We’re going to have to make it work,’ he said.
“The hearing was called to solicit opinion from farmers on U.S. agriculture policy as Congress begins to craft legislation to replace the current farm bill. That measure, passed in 2008, authorized $289 billion over five years for all Department of Agriculture programs, including food stamps for the poor and farm subsidies.”
(FarmPolicy.com Note: To listen to Chairman Peterson’s comments from yesterday in their entirety, just click here (MP3-3:34)).
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Crop Insurance- Standard Reinsurance Agreement (SRA)
Dan Looker reported earlier this week at AgricultureOnline that, “Last week members of the crop insurance industry met with USDA officials to try to understand the Obama Administration’s latest proposed reinsurance agreement with the industry. Tuesday, National Crop Insurance Services President Bob Parkerson said the industry has no choice but to accept the $6 billion cut in federal reimbursements for administrative costs over the next 10 years, if certain technical issues can be worked out.
“‘This is an extremely large cut,’ Parkerson said at a press conference Tuesday. It comes on top of $6.4 billion in cuts in the 2008 Farm Bill. Annually, the latest cut amounts to $600 million a year.”
The article added that, “‘A big part of the reduction is going to happen with the agent workforce,’ said Keith Collins, former USDA Chief Economist and now a consultant with NCIS.
“USDA says its reimbursement to the industry for 2009 is likely to be $3.8 billion. Collins and Parkerson said the cuts to the industry might not affect farmers directly yet. Indemnity payments are guaranteed by USDA. But service to farmers might suffer. And, Collins said, the lower returns could affect the industry when another widespread loss occurs.
“‘It limits the ability to build surplus for a really bad year,’ Collins said.”
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