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Conservation and the 2002 Farm Bill
(printable version)Senators to quiz Veneman over farm bill implementation
By: Damon Franz
Environment and Energy Daily
September 16, 2002
The Senate Agriculture Committee will hold a hearing Tuesday to review the Agriculture Department's implementation of the 2002 farm bill and ask USDA Secretary Ann Veneman how she plans to administer the programs included in the $45 billion,six-year law.
According to committee spokesman Seth Boffeli, the committee has a list of issues to raise with Veneman related to farm bill (P.L. 107-171)implementation. One issue, he said, is the release of technical assistance funds for some of the conservation programs. According to Boffeli, the White House Office of Management and Budget has been putting up a fight over release of that money, which is used to pay USDA employees who are helping farmers improve the environmental sustainability of their operations. Last month, environmentalists warned that the dispute with OMB over technical assistance money was holding up the release of funds for the Farmland Protection Program and the Wetlands Reserve Program. According to the Environmental Working Group, OMB was insisting the technical assistance money should come from the money that had been authorized in the farm bill for distribution to farmers who agree to idle sensitive wetlands or sell their development rights.
Last week, Veneman announced that USDA would release $323 million for the FPP and WRP, leading many to conclude that the dispute had been resolved. But one USDA official said that money was only for payments to farmers and did not include technical assistance funds, which are still being held up by the dispute. If those funds are not released, the official said, USDA employees working to implement the programs could be redirected to other areas.
On Friday, Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold (D) sent a letter to Veneman asking her to release the technical assistance funding for FPP and WRP. "By withholding funds to provide the technical assistance necessary to enroll farmland and wetlands in the conservation programs, the administration is preventing the increased conservation funding for 2002 from being spent for those purposes," he wrote. "Farmers are waiting in line to place over 700,000 acres of farmland into these programs to safeguard them from sprawl and development."
OMB did not return a call seeking comment.
Schedule: The hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m., Tuesday, Sept. 17, in 328-A Russell.
Witness: Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman will testify.
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