U.S. Representative Sanford Bishop is calling on President Bush not to stand in the way of enacting a new Farm Bill this year following House passage of a version that he says contains many positive features for farmers, agri-businesses, rural development, the environment, and even welfare reform.

The House passed the new Farm Bill, entitled the “Farm Security Act,” by a vote of 291-120 Friday (October 5), sending it to the Senate. The measure, authorizing federal agricultural and rural development programs for the next 10 years, would succeed the omnibus Farm Bill enacted in 1996, which is scheduled to expire next year.

“The 1996 Farm Bill was a visionary bill that gave farmers greater flexibility, but which failed to provide the help they needed when prices slumped and costs increased,” the Second District Congressman said on the House floor. “The Farm Bill we consider today continues that same flexibility, but with a stronger farm safety-net that should eliminate the need for the billions of dollars Congress has appropriated in ad hoc emergency appropriations in the past.”

He said the bill contains a new peanut program which includes a market loan program of $350 a ton, a countercyclical safety net providing deficiency payments based on a target price of $480 a ton, and compensation for quota holders of 10 cents a pound over five years for the loss of the quota asset. He explained it is designed to get farmers through periods of depressed market conditions and enable them to compete against foreign producers as tariff rates decline.

He said the bill also provides maximum flexibility and countercyclical market loss payments for other major program crops and soybeans; revises commodity programs for dairy and sugar and establishes a new program for wool, mohair and honey; increases funding for soil, water, and wildlife conservation by 75 percent; provides $785 million more for rural development, including programs to improve drinking water resources, expand telecommunications, and promote value-added market development; doubles funding for the Market Access Program to help producers and exporters finance promotional initiatives abroad; adds $25 million a year through 2011 for agricultural research; and provides new transitional Food Stamp assistance to families moving from welfare to work.

Representative Bishop said the Administration has expressed opposition to the House-passed bill on the grounds that it might encourage overproduction, make it more difficult to negotiate anti-subsidy agricultural trade provisions with other countries, and cost too much money at a time of national crisis. He disagreed, saying the funding levels are affordable based on economic projections, it promises a more level playing field against foreign competitors, and it includes provisions to create more markets to accommodate full production.

The Congressman, a member of the House Agriculture Committee, said the President has voiced objections to the bill, but has not suggested revisions as a step toward working out a final agreement. He said the legislation is critically important to a sound agricultural economy, and he urged the Administration to make every possible effort to reach a bipartisan agreement in order to get a Farm Bill passed and signed into law this year.