The National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) is one of 15 agricultural organizations issuing joint statement today on the expiration of the 2008 farm bill:
The 2008 law governing many of our nation’s farm policies expired on Sunday, September 30th, and the 2012 Farm Bill needed to replace it is bottled up in Congress. While the Senate and the House Agriculture Committees were both able to pass their versions of the new farm bill, the full House was unable to do so. While expiration of farm bill program authorities has little or no effect on some important programs, it has terminated a number of important programs and will very adversely affect many farmers and ranchers, as well as ongoing market development and conservation efforts.
Congress will return in mid-November for a lame-duck session prior to final adjournment in December. We will work to have the first order of business for the House of Representatives be to consider a new Farm Bill. We are urging our members to seek out their House members between now and the elections and remind them of the consequences of not having a new bill in place prior to adjournment at the end of the year.
Among the programs affected by expiration of the legislation are several USDA conservation programs. About 6.5 million acres rotate out of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) this year and while current contracts are protected, no new signup will be allowed for CRP or the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP). Both of these programs are voluntary land retirement programs that helps agricultural producers protect environmentally sensitive land, decrease erosion, restore wildlife habitat, and safeguard ground and surface water. In addition, there cannot be sign up for the Wetlands Reserve Program or the Grasslands Reserve Program without new legislation.
In addition to the NACD, other organizations issuing the joint statement include American Farm Bureau Federation, National Corn Growers Association, National Council of Farmer Cooperatives and the National Farmers Union.
2 Comments on “Expiration of the 2008 Farm Bill”
The Senate Farm Bill should NOT be passed with this section still added: SEC. 12211. DEFINITION OF RURAL AREA FOR PURPOSES OF THE HOUSING ACT OF 1949 would increase the pool of recipients and also increased rural community population requirement to 35,000. This population level would be a small City not a true rural community. Also, changing the Census date to 2020 insures those who have already received fair share of benefits over past years and now self-sufficient to continue receiving such benefits. That is the purpose of rural programs to help very small struggling communities grow and become self-sufficient, not to become a Welfare System for self-sufficient communities who have already received past benefits wanting more.
This section in the Senate Farm Bill and also appearing in other bills such as House Bill H.R. 273 is a potential Legislative Back Scratching just for the purpose of continuing to feed funding to self sufficient city governments. What our government has been doing since after 1990 is “grandfathering” communities who are no longer rural and allowing them to continue to stick their fingers in the rural money pie, which in turn means less money for those in desperate need who may not have running water, proper sanitation services, decent housing, etc. This is ABUSE of all our TAX DOLLARS for the last 20+ years. Again, we are 16+ Trillion in debt and this contributes to the problem with communities who no longer need or qualify receiving more. This adds to our debt instead of solving major problems in our country such as noted in this article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/20/rural-poverty-minorities_n_1829911.html
This website will automatically send letter(s) to your Congressman or Senators regarding legislation you are either for or against: https://www.popvox.com
This link will go to Senate Farm Bill: https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/112/s3240
This link will go to H.R.273: https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/112/hr273
Please become pro-active and include a link to the above article and inform Senators or Congressmen you want the rural money to help the true rural communities and not continue to line pockets of communities who are no longer supposed to be defined as rural. Also, there have been property right violations regarding a USDA program; therefore, why would our government officials want to add more communities to this entity without first fixing to prevent future Property Right violations against our citizens.
You can also respond the same to the Committee on Financial Services (committee who will be conducting hearings on H.R. 273) at these links:
https://financialservices.house.gov/contact/contactform.htm
https://financialservices.house.gov/contact/legislationcomments.htm
It does not matter if you are Democrat, Republican, etc. what matters is We the People need to start banning together ourselves and stop Government Abuse and the scams harming the citizens regarding the use of OUR Tax Dollars. Any Farm Bill should only pertain to Farmer emergency situations to insure proper food supply for our Citizens and insure farmers have access to proper insurance same as any other business in our country, nothing more and nothing less.
The Senate Farm Bill should NOT be passed with this section still added: SEC. 12211. DEFINITION OF RURAL AREA FOR PURPOSES OF THE HOUSING ACT OF 1949 would increase the pool of recipients and also increased rural community population requirement to 35,000. This population level would be a small City not a true rural community. Also, changing the Census date to 2020 insures those who have already received fair share of benefits over past years and now self-sufficient to continue receiving such benefits. That is the purpose of rural programs to help very small struggling communities grow and become self-sufficient, not to become a Welfare System for self-sufficient communities who have already received past benefits wanting more.
This section in the Senate Farm Bill and also appearing in other bills such as House Bill H.R. 273 is a potential Legislative Back Scratching just for the purpose of continuing to feed funding to self sufficient city governments. What our government has been doing since after 1990 is “grandfathering” communities who are no longer rural and allowing them to continue to stick their fingers in the rural money pie, which in turn means less money for those in desperate need who may not have running water, proper sanitation services, decent housing, etc. This is ABUSE of all our TAX DOLLARS for the last 20+ years. Again, we are 16+ Trillion in debt and this contributes to the problem with communities who no longer need or qualify receiving more. This adds to our debt instead of solving major problems in our country such as noted in this article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/20/rural-poverty-minorities_n_1829911.html
This website will automatically send letter(s) to your Congressman or Senators regarding legislation you are either for or against: https://www.popvox.com
This link will go to Senate Farm Bill: https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/112/s3240
This link will go to H.R.273: https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/112/hr273
Please become pro-active and include a link to the above article and inform Senators or Congressmen you want the rural money to help the true rural communities and not continue to line pockets of communities who are no longer supposed to be defined as rural. Also, there have been property right violations regarding a USDA program; therefore, why would our government officials want to add more communities to this entity without first fixing to prevent future Property Right violations against our citizens.
You can also respond the same to the Committee on Financial Services (committee who will be conducting hearings on H.R. 273) at these links:
https://financialservices.house.gov/contact/contactform.htm
https://financialservices.house.gov/contact/legislationcomments.htm
It does not matter if you are Democrat, Republican, etc. what matters is We the People need to start banning together ourselves and stop Government Abuse and the scams harming the citizens regarding the use of OUR Tax Dollars. Any Farm Bill should only pertain to Farmer emergency situations to insure proper food supply for our Citizens and insure farmers have access to proper insurance same as any other business in our country, nothing more and nothing less.