The National Association of Wheat Growers today asked that the
Senate accept a Farm Bill compromise offered by House conferees. House
conferees have crafted a compromise proposal that bridges significant gaps
between the two proposals, particularly in the commodity title; the
compromise represents the best hope for finishing a farm bill this year
under existing budget authority. NAWG strongly endorsed the commodity and
conservation provisions in the proposal.
The proposal makes significant compromises on loan rates to accommodate
Senate positions, while preserving funding allocations between titles and
other important components of the House legislation. It also accommodates
proposals from the Senate on payment limitations and a number of other
significant issues.
“The House has made major moves in this proposal, even over our
objections, to reach common ground with the Senate on loan rates,” said
NAWG President Gary Broyles, a wheat grower from Montana. “Both sides can
claim some victory in this proposal, and we call on the Senate conferees
to work with this offer.”
NAWG has favored a support system that is not directly linked to
production, where the supports still function in the event of crop failure
and do not provide a production stimulus. Examples of these supports are
fixed payments or decoupled countercyclical payments. Support provided by
high loan rates, in contrast, provides no support in the event of crop
failure – it only supports bushels that are actually produced – and
increases or decreases in direct proportion with production. In addition,
production-linked support complicates the obligations of the United States
in global trade agreements. The loan program has a role to play in US farm
policy, but it should not be the centerpiece of the policy toolkit,
according to NAWG.
“It’s simply time to get this bill finished,” said NAWG Vice President
Mark Gage, a producer from North Dakota. “The process has been slow enough
that USDA will have great difficulty in implementing the bill for 2002.
And if we delay further, we run a substantial risk of losing the bill
completely along with the budget allocation reserved for it.”
“Every time target prices are lowered to buy a higher loan rate,
farmers lose,” said Broyles. “We urgently need the Senate conferees to
stop trading off good policy tools for bad ones. The House has compromised
to the limit in their proposal; if this still isn’t enough to get a farm
bill done, it will be plainly evident who is responsible for the result.”
