05/15/07 House Ag Chair sees commodity program structure staying

Farm and Ranch May 15, 2007 House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson expects his committee to begin marking up titles of the 2007 Farm Bill this week or next. Peterson: "And it looks like that is coming together and we will have bipartisan agreement on where we start." That was Peterson during a recent teleconference with reporters. The chairman was asked if the commodity title mark up would start by retaining the three-part safety net of direct payments, LDP's and counter cyclicals. Peterson: "Well the structure that there, the planting flexibility will remain and the basic structure that we have been dealing with I believe will remain in terms of direct payments, counter cyclical and LDPs. There may be some moving around in there but the basic structure is going to be maintained." Numerous farm bill proposals have been introduced in Congress. Most recently Representative Ron Kind of Wisconsin and Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana put forth a plan that would phase out crop subsidies. Peterson's reaction to that; Peterson: "My guess is this doesn't sound like something that most members of the committee would have a whole lot of interest in." Not being on the Ag Committee anymore Kind would have to find a member to bring it up and if no one does and the proposal then comes up on the House floor Peterson says he would be upset. He doesn't want the farm bill written on the House floor by members who do not understand agriculture. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag information Network.