11-5 IAT Farm Bill 1
The farm bill from Sec. of Agriculture Tom Vilsack's perspective.
One thing that we can count on is the fact that Sec. of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has a vital interest in seeing to it that the farm bill gets passed. The Ag Information Network's Kay Dee Gilkey personally interviewed the secretary and obtained a very candid and open stance.Two things. Number one it is extraordinarily important that we get this done and we get it done now, we have waited far too long for a comprehensive bill to get done and I know there are differences between the House and the Senate but I want to encourage folks to get to a point where a compromise can be obtained. This is because there are so many benefits that will come from a comprehensive bill. The benefits are obvious to farmers and producers in terms of a strong safety net, but the benefits to job growth in rural America may not be as obvious but there are job promotion programs in this bill, there is a trade promotion effort that will allow us to continue extending record trade activity which helps to stabilize incomes and create jobs, there is a strong conservation title that will create an easier vehicle and easier avenue for folks to take advantage of conservation for the benefit of our soil and water, our research universities will benefit from this bill in a significant way in terms of innovation and new ideas coming out of our land grant universities. Bottom line, this is a reform bill containing significant reforms that will save money and will make it a little easier to put a budget together with some deficit reductions. Very important it gets done and there are consequences if it doesn't get done.
