02/08/06 Ag budget, going inside the numbers

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns says the President's proposed 93 billion dollar agriculture budget for fiscal year 2007 is three billion dollars below current spending. JOHANNS "We assume we will not need the emergency disaster assistance funding that was needed in 2006. The second reason relates to the budget reductions that we are proposing which include some legislative changes." 56 percent of the proposed budget is earmarked for assistance programs like food stamps, school lunches and women-children programs. JOHANNS "Spending for farm programs including commodity payments, farm loans and crop insurance accounts for about 22 percent." The remaining 22 percent of USDA spending goes to programs like conservation, rural development, food safety and research. With four billion dollars budgeted Johanns says an additional 23 million acres of land can be enrolled in conservation programs. JOHANNS "83 million in additional resources are included to extend the Conservation Security Program into additional watersheds and to service prior year contracts." Johanns says the budget provides for fuel reduction activities on more than 3.2 million acres of federal land, 150 thousand acres above this year's total. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott