Senate Ag Committee Opposes Obama Farm Program Cuts
March 23, 2010 In a letter to President Obama last week, Republican members of the Senate, led by the Agriculture Committee’s Ranking Member Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), urged President Obama not to reduce farm spending in these difficult economic times.
The letter stated:
“As Congress directs its attention to the fiscal year 2011 budget, we write to voice our opposition to cuts in the farm safety net. Cutting farm programs in the midst of an economic downturn sends the wrong signal to rural America. While we agree that fiscal restraint is necessary and spending in the Federal budget should be reduced, doing so in this manner places a disproportionate burden on the backs of farmers, ranchers and rural communities and fails to recognize the recent sacrifices these constituencies made to expand nutrition programs during the reauthorization of the 2008 farm bill.
“In 2008, the Congress passed a fiscally responsible farm bill that did not add to the deficit and included more than $7 billion worth of cuts to farm and the crop insurance programs to increase spending in nutrition assistance for needy Americans. The farm bill represents a commitment to our rural communities, and we have an obligation to fulfill our obligations to our farmers and ranchers who depend on this legislation to make business decisions. Reducing our level of commitment with the proposed budget cuts to the farm safety net jeopardizes their economic sustainability and would cost jobs in rural America.”
“While we agree that reducing the deficit is necessary, we do not believe America’s farmers and ranchers should have to bear a disproportionate burden of the cuts. Notably, the farm safety net cuts included in the President’s budget appear to be proposed not for the purpose of deficit reduction but, rather, to offset the cost of spending increases contained elsewhere in the USDA budget. All told,
the President’s budget proposal for USDA actually increases total outlays by more than $4 billion.
“The budget cuts to the farm safety net also appear to disregard the fact that the 2008 farm bill, which contains the farm safety net provisions cut in the President’s budget, was fiscally-responsible and completely offset so as not to add to our country’s deficit. In fact, these provisions were already cut by $7.4 billion in 2008, the only core provisions to experience a cut, bringing their share of the total federal budget down to less than one quarter of one percent and just 17 percent of the USDA budget. Yet the President’s budget proposal breaks a five year commitment made to America’s farmers and ranchers by seeking to further cut the farm safety net.”
Also signing the letter were Pat Roberts (R-KS), Thad Cochran (R-MS), John Thune (R-SD), James Risch (R-ID), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) and David Vitter (R-LA).
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