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Diversity Initiative Action Alert - February 8, 2008Though there has been no official action on the farm bill, the House and Senate continue to move toward the House-Senate conference to resolve the differences in their bill. They also must reach agreement with the Administration in order to secure the Presidentís signature on any compromise package. NegotiationsThe Administration, the House and the Senate have begun to negotiate the overall framework for a compromise while continuing to debate serious differences on the legislation in public statements. Most Administration disagreements are focused on funding the farm bill and the scope of benefits under the farm bill programs. While the new Secretary of Agriculture, Ed Schafer, has indicated that the Administration might be willing to compromise on overall limitations on payments, compromise has not yet been reached on what the Administration views as tax increases included in the bill. Partisan conflict over both funding sources and food stamps is also brewing in the House. Many House Republicans voted against the farm bill in July, perceiving it to be funded by a tax increase. Now, 153 Representatives have signed a letter stating they will not support the final bill unless it includes the increases to the food stamp program included in the House version. In addition, there are significant differences in policy and funding between the House and the Senate bills. The House and Senate staff are currently meeting to resolve their smaller differences, and will prepare proposals to resolve differences for review by the House and Senate conference committee members. Only the Senate conferees have been appointed to date. Behind-the-scenes work will likely continue until conferees are named and the conference meeting scheduled. Conferees
The House has not yet named its conferees, but they are likely to be senior members of the agriculture committee, as well as representatives of related House committees. Currently, Diversity Initiative advocacy is focused on members of the Agriculture Committees and also Ag Committee staffers working on negotiating the less controversial details. TimingTiming of the Conference is still uncertain, though with conferees still unnamed, it will likely be late February or March. The Congressional leadership wants the farm bill done by March 15, when the Congressional Budget Office will adjust its estimate of the budget base line for farm bill programs The base line is the projected cost of the programs in the farm bill over the next five or ten years, and is the amount that Congress has to work with in crafting the new farm bill. Because commodity prices are much higher now than when the cost estimate was completed last year, it is believed that the new base line for the farm bill will decline and therefore hinder Congressís ability to craft new programs. March 15 is also the date new policy is needed in order to allow USDA to be ready to institute farm programs in time for spring planting. If no compromise is reached in this timeframe, Congress may be forced to consider extending the current farm bill. In that case, all of the gains the Diversity Initiative has achieved would be either lost or postponed until a new bill is written sometime in the future. ActionThe Diversity Initiative team has created an extensive side-by-side of provisions affecting socially disadvantaged farmers in the two versions of the farm bill. This can be found online here. As Congress moves into Congress, the DI Team has also developed a sign-on letter, which calls upon Congress to complete farm bill action and which outlines the most important SDFR provisions and advises them on how to proceed in reconciling the differences between the two bills. This letter is attached below. If your organization would like to sign on, please contact Amy Saltzman, asaltzman@ruralco.org, with your organization name, location, and the message, Sign On. We also recommend that you contact your members of Congress directly in support of these provisions.
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