10/23/08 Ag Secretary on base years for ACRE program

Farm and Ranch October 23, 2008 Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer has made a decision to use 2007 and 2008 as the base years for the new revenue-based counter-cyclical program, called ACRE. But Schafer says not everyone at USDA is on the same page. Schafer: "I made a decision where I think where we ought to go at USDA. We need to round that ACRE program through our department here and get everybody on board here too because we have a lot of difference of opinion. And then of course the big deal is we have to get it through the Office of Management and Budget, OMB, over at the White House. We are working through the process and hopefully we will be able to announce a decision soon." Schafer says just using 2007 and 2008 doesn't solve the problem Schafer: "Because when the CBO scored the bill they used 07 and 08 but they used it with an April baseline. So with that April baseline is where they got this 250-million dollars savings. If you use today's baseline and today's prices well then all of the sudden you are spending money instead of saving money. We have to see where you are going to click in the baseline to generate the numbers that eventually will be the target prices or guaranteed prices next October after the end of the 08 crop year." Schafer had previously said using 07 and 08 instead of 06 and 07 would cost taxpayers more than a billion dollars. ACRE is a option program crop producers can choose in the next crop year. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.