SENATE PASSES FARM BILL, INCLUDING $350 MILLION ANNUALLY FOR FARMLAND PROTECTION PROGRAM

On February 13, the Senate passed S.1731, the Agriculture, Conservation and Rural Enhancement Act of 2001 (see Policy Update, February 8, 2002). The bill includes a total of $1.75 billion for the federal Farmland Protection Program (FPP) for the next five years. With this level of funding, the federal government will be positioned as a vital partner to the multitude of ongoing local and state efforts to protect working farmland from sprawl. Increases in other conservation programs are equally impressive, with total funding for programs to improve water quality, enhance wildlife habitat, restore wetlands and native grasslands, and reduce soil erosion set at $4.4 billion annually. Farmer demand for all USDA conservation programs has surpassed the funds authorized by the previous farm bill in 1996. As passed, S.1731 would erase funding backlogs and begin to meet growing demand for these voluntary, incentive-based programs. In particular, the Senate farm bill includes: $350 million in average annual spending for the Farmland Protection Program, which purchases agricultural conservation easements from willing farmers and ranchers; $270 million in average annual spending for the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program; Sufficient Wetlands Reserve Program funding to protect and restore 250,000 acres of wetlands nationwide per year, and sufficient funding to enroll 41 million acres into the Conservation Reserve Program, which reduces soil erosion; The establishment of a two-million-acre Grasslands Reserve Program to protect and restore native prairies and grasslands; An average of $1.4 billion annually for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, which seeks to improve water quality. The farm bill process now moves to a House-Senate conference committee to reconcile the differences between S.1731 and H.R. 2646 - the House farm bill that passed in October and provides significantly less funding for conservation (see Action Alert, February 15, 2002 and Policy Update, November 28, 2001). For a detailed comparison of the House and Senate proposals for the farm bill conservation title please go to: http://www.nacdnet.org/govtaff/FB/HouseSenate.htm. Contact: Tobey Williamson, AFT's Federal Policy Program Manager, (202) 331-7000 x3020