Vilsack On Budget Part 2

Vilsack On Budget Part 2. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

President Obama’s proposed 2012 budget includes the budgets for all departments including that of Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack’s USDA. He says it is a challenging budget and cuts will have to be made but he says there are some constants.

VILSACK: Regardless of economic conditions some things remain constant. There’s certainly the need for safe food as well as the need for us to continue focusing on the conservation and preservation of our natural resources. That too has to be reflected in the USDA budget. And finally in terms of the long term as the President has indicated we’re in global competition and we have to out innovate, out educate and out build our global competitors and so USDA’s budget also has to reflect a commitment to winning the future, to long term growth and stability of our agricultural economy as well as our rural economy.

He says they took all these things into consideration to come up with the proposed 2012 USDA budget.

VILSACK: It is true that the overall discretionary budget for 2012 proposed by USDA provides for less discretionary spending than the 2011 proposed budget. On the out lay side discretionary spending is $4-billion dollars less proposed in 2012 than in 2011. Total outlays are $7-billion dollars less.

He talks about some specific areas.

VILSACK: We start with the crop insurance savings that we realized last year and carry over into this year. Additional changes in catastrophic policies in terms of the premium assistance will net additional savings as a result. We’ve taken a look at some of the operating loans that we provide our farmers and decided to eliminate the guaranteed operating along with interest assistance program.

Vilsack believes they can handle the operating loans without the interest assistance. He also thinks that with a strong ag economy there will not be any need for counter cyclical or loan deficiency programs.

VILSACK: We again propose the direct payment reforms that have been proposed in previous budgets, reducing the adjusted gross income requirements and eligibility requirements as well as capping the over payment at $30-thousand dollars. This impacts and affects a small percentage of our farm families, roughly 2% of our producers.

For a complete look at the proposed USDA budget, visit their website at usda.gov.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.