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The Senate Appropriations Committee cleared a spending blueprint last
week that would chip away at some of the funding boosts for
conservation that were included in the newly minted farm bill.
The $20.4 billion fiscal 2009 spending bill would place limits on
some of the farm bill's mandatory funds for conservation and renewable
energy programs. If enacted into law, the proposal would pull the rug
out from under the programs before USDA has a chance to get the
historic funding increases off the ground.
The bill, which
cleared the committee without objection, would cut hundreds of millions
of dollars from funding levels that were set in the farm bill for the
Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Grassland Reserve Program and
Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program.
The committee had to
shave off funding from the mandatory programs in an effort to boost
other accounts. The Food and Drug Administration and food aid in the
Women, Infants and Children program would both see major increases.
"They
have always seen conservation, rural development and energy titles as a
bank for anything they need for the rest of the bill," said Julie
Sibbing of the National Wildlife Federation.
The bill is
certainly not all bad news for conservation. It increases funding for
some discretionary conservation accounts, and overall farm bill
conservation programs would still get more money than last year. But
the move to cut some farm bill funding came as a major disappointment
for the groups that fought to get $4 billion in increases for
conservation over the five-year life of the farm bill. The
appropriators did not make any cuts to crop subsidy or other farm bill
programs.
"The farm bill is a delicately crafted funding
compromise ... then you get in here and conservation takes all the
cuts, but others are sacrosanct, the whole thing is unfair," said Ferd
Hoefner of the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.
The bill
would shave off $285 million from the Environmental Quality Incentives
Program, $15 million from the Grassland Reserve Program and $11 million
from the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program. The bill also skims $5
million from a program that helps farmers start renewable energy
projects on their land -- though at $50 million, the renewable energy
program still has twice as much money as last year.
The
cuts came despite the fact that Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who chaired
the farm bill conference committee, sits on the Appropriations
Committee. Harkin said he was disappointed with the cuts.
"With
increased crop production and the natural disasters that happened
throughout the Midwest, the need for conservation is now greater than
ever," Harkin said in a statement. "To that end, it is encouraging that
this measure supports myriad conservation efforts, but I am concerned
about cuts, which were taken against some of the funding in the farm
bill for conservation programs on working lands ... and against some of
the farm bill's energy program funding that invests in renewable fuels."
Appropriators
have frequently turned to mandatory farm bill funding to help offset
spending increases they would prefer for other programs. Under the
GOP-controlled Congress, appropriators regularly put limits on farm
bill conservation programs -- effectively cutting hundreds of millions
of dollars each year.
But lobbyists said that in the past,
spending panels usually waited at least a year after the farm bill was
finished to start chipping away at it. In this case, it was only a few
months.
"There's a clear difference now between the House
and Senate, and between the 2002 farm bill and this one," said Hoefner.
"They're nickel-and-diming a whole raft of farm bill programs. I think
it's the wrong thing to do."
On the House side,
Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro
(D-Conn.) fought to keep farm bill funding intact in her spending bill.
The only cut DeLauro made was to EQIP, an easy target because it
received some of the biggest increases in the farm bill. The House mark
cuts $270 million from EQIP, budgeting a total of $1.1 billion for the
program. Senate appropriators would cut even more -- $285 million --
from EQIP.
Increases elsewhere
While some farm bill programs would
see cuts, the Senate bill gives significant increases to several
discretionary conservation accounts. One of those is conservation
operations, a key account that pays for staff for the Natural Resources
Conservation Service and technical assistance to help farmers and
landowners come up with conservation plans.
The Senate
bill includes $867 million for conservation operations, $19 million
more than the House and $72 million more than the White House budget
request. Farmland conservation advocates have requested a boost for the
account to help get the expanded farm bill programs off the ground. The
Bush administration's $795 million request for conservation operations
would lead to a 12 percent reduction of the work force.
The
Senate committee-approved bill also restores funding for some watershed
programs the White House had zeroed out in its budget request. It
allots almost $30 million for watershed and flood prevention, $51
million for resource conservation and development, and almost $2
million for the Healthy Forests Reserve Program. The Agriculture
Department had cut all of the programs in its budget.
The
committee also budgeted $20 million for watershed rehabilitation in
addition to the mandatory $30 million for the program in the farm bill.
Last
week's approval of the bill is part of a push from the Senate panel to
report all 12 bills out of committee before August -- even though the
defense-related bills are the only ones expected to appear on the
Senate floor. The committee has approved nine bills and still must vote
on three more, including the Interior and Environment measure.
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