Drama Begins in Construction of the 2012 Farm Bill
June 22, 2011 There are two “Monster in the Closet” type situations that will dramatically affect the writing of the 2012 Farm Bill: Record high commodity prices on one hand, and record high deficits on the other.
“Let’s be honest – this is an exceptional year,” said Congressman Frank Lucas (R-OK), Chairman of the House Ag Committee. “It didn’t rain on the Russians, it didn’t rain on the Chinese, it rained too much on the Australians, it’s not raining in the Southwest – these are not normal commodity prices. If you write a five-year bill based on these numbers, it will not be what we need in five years’ time.
“At the same time, we have record national deficits – a trillion-plus dollars out of balance for three years in a row. If we attempted to write a farm bill this year, the folks who I serve with, who have no understanding of agriculture, would simply say ‘x’ it out – there’s no need to do it.”
That’s why Lucas, who made his remarks at the 87th Annual American Cotton Shippers Association Convention held in Washington in May, believes there should be no rush to write a farm bill now, as some of his colleagues have suggested. It should be written, he said, within a specific timeframe.
“If we write it under regular order, we will not use the budget numbers from this year – we’ll use the budget numbers from the Budget Committee a year from now,” Lucas explained. “And I would hope that the national economy would start to pick up and provide some certainties. I would hope that in a more practical sense, that we deal more with long-term prices next year.”
Lucas, who said, “I’m a farmer by trade and a graduate of Oklahoma State with a degree in agricultural economics,” rose from ranking member of the Ag Committee to chairman when the Republicans reclaimed control of the House of Representatives last year. The GOP now holds a 242-193 majority.
“This is a different Congress than the previous two bodies. In the previous Congress, you had a president who was elected in a surprise to many,” said Lucas. “You had Speaker Pelosi with a big, big margin in the House. You had Harry Reid, most of the time, with 60 of the 100 seats. They were bodies in a position to do bold and great things, my Democrat friends.”
His sarcasm was very much intended.
“In the eyes and perspective of my constituents in the Great State of Oklahoma, the Democrats gave us Obamacare and they nearly killed us with global warming,” Lucas continued. “But look at the price the Democrats paid. I am now a member of the biggest Republican majority in the House since the 1940s. The Senate lives with a 53 (Democrat)-47 (Republican) split. Even though the Democrats technically run the Senate, nobody is in control.
“I serve in a body now where we have a president who is doing what most presidents do at the end of their first term. And that’s work really hard to try to figure out some way to get re-elected. That’s the body I’m in right now.”
With the sweeping victory by House Republicans, the GOP now enjoys a 26-20 majority on the House Ag Committee.
“Of my 26 Republicans – counting myself as one of those – 16 were not around for the last farm bill,” Lucas said. “Sixteen of my Republicans have never been on the Ag Committee before. Sixteen of my Republicans had never been elected to Congress, and most of them had never been elected to anything before. Think about that.
“On the Democratic side, of the 20 members, seven are new to the Committee, but I don’t believe there are any freshmen. But you have to remember that there aren’t many freshmen Democrats in the House in general. So 23 of my 46 members on the Committee have never been through this great process we call a farm bill. Put that thought in the back of your mind.”
Lucas added that of the 26 Democrat members that he served with during his role as Ranking Member in the previous session, 13 of them, “didn’t get invited back by the voters. That’s an epic number, when half of the majority of the Committee is not re-elected.”
Expiration Date
Provisions of the 2008 Farm Bill will begin to expire at the end of July, 2012.
“A number of my colleagues, including my predecessor (Colin Peterson, D-MN) recommended that we write a new farm bill a year early – this year,” Lucas said. “(But) if you write a five-year bill based on these numbers, it will not be what we need in five years’ time.
“Based on my conversations with Senator Stabenow – who I have great respect for – she might begin the process (early). But I told her that I need new budget numbers next summer – next year’s projections – not this year’s.”
Stabenow is a Democrat from Minnesota and Chairs the Senate Ag Committee.
“I will admit that this will be a farm bill where we have less money to spend than in previous farm bills that I’ve been a part of,” said Lucas. “If we just took the ’08 Farm Bill and scratched out everywhere it said ‘2012’, and penciled in ‘2017’”– a farm bill written in 2012 will expire in 2017 – “I’m $9 billion short, simply because doing that is just using funny money. It’s not real. And we’re not going to use funny money in the House of Representatives. The numbers have to be real, and that means we’re $9 billion short, and that comes before the general level of spending is pulled down by the House. The focus, and the challenge, is going to be the trillion-dollar deficit and how to pull it down.”
The rules of Congress are such that in farm bill years, the Chairmanship of the Farm Bill Conference will alternately come from the House and Senate, and the chairmanship falls upon Lucas this time around.
“I have the privilege, I guess, of trying to work out the differences with our friends over on the other side of the building. It’s going to be a challenge – an absolute challenge,” he said. “But we will write a farm bill. And we will write a farm bill that will be in the best interest of rural America and production ag. I’m confident of that. What I’m telling my folks back home is that after two years of bad things happening to us, at least we’re not going to allow anymore bad things to occur. And I think it will be a good time to be chairman when we write a farm bill that will start things going in the right direction.”
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