U.S. House Ag Committee budget letter

Farm and Ranch March 17, 2011 The U.S. House Agriculture Committee has written budget writers asking them to consider the billions of dollars cut from programs under its jurisdiction in recent years when they establish spending targets for fiscal 2012. Ranking committee member Collin Peterson spoke on that issue in a meeting this week.

Peterson: “We have already reduced commodity program spending over the course of several farm bills and then our crop insurance with the SRA process that was done in May. If every other government program both mandatory and discretionary were reduced the same percentage as the federal crop insurance program it would reduce the deficit 2.3 trillion dollars over the next ten years.”

In the letter to the Budget Committee the ag panel says it want to be part of the solution to the nation’s fiscal crisis but Ag Committee Chairman Frank Lucas also said;

Lucas: “While streamlining our programs we must be careful not to jeopardize the stability of the agricultural industry, which will play a key role in feeding an estimated nine billion people by the year 2050. Policy changes, if prudent, will be carefully considered by this committee and stakeholders.”

The letter argues that high commodity prices have not made U.S. agriculture any less vulnerable to a future economic downturn, noting that a 51 percent increase in gross cash income over the past nine years has been met by a 57 percent increase in cash expenses.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net.

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