11/20/06 Ag chairmen on budget and ag

Farm and Ranch November 20, 2006 Incoming U.S. House Ag Committee chair Collin Peterson of Minnesota says he is hopeful farm spending will be protected next year despite likely efforts to pare government spending. Peterson points out that agriculture has already saved the government billions. Peterson: "We have save money. The bill over the last four years has saved 13, 14-billion below what is was supposed to cost. We didn't cause this budget problem and so if we need additional baseline I think we have a good argument in the budget committees to adjust what we have to do." Peterson says most ag committee members feel farm supports are working well and want to continue the current program structure without robbing commodity payments to fund enhanced energy and conservation programs. Peterson: "That is what I want to try and avoid and I think we can work with the budget committees and OMB and so forth so we get the adequate authority so we don't have to do that." Tom Harkin of Iowa who will chair the Senate Ag Committee is particularly interested in the Conservation Security Program which he authored in the last farm bill. Harkin: "I intend to do the CSP just like we did in the last farm bill but I intend to tighten it down so they can't keep doing it on a watershed basis. We are going to close some of those doors and tighten down on it. It was written as a national program. It is an entitlement program just like a commodity program. That was the whole thrust of it." I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.