August 28 , 2013
www.gfb.org
Vol. 31 No. 35
AUSTIN SCOTT HOPEFUL FARM BILL PASSES BY END OF THE YEAR Rep. Austin Scott said on Aug. 20 he’d like to see a new long-term farm bill enacted by the end of the year. During an interview with Georgia Farm Bureau media he also discussed legislation that addresses immigration. Scott (R-8th Dist.), a member of the House Ag Committee, said he felt good about the initial farm bill that the committee passed but was voted down on the House floor. With the nutrition provision stripped from it, the bill later passed the House and now awaits consideration by a conference committee along with the Senate farm bill. Scott said he anticipates the House to address nutrition programs with a separate bill shortly after Congress reconvenes after its August recess. “Let’s face it, you write a farm bill for the tough years and we really felt like we had good provisions in there to keep the good Scott farmers in business through those tough years,” Scott said. “So we’ll go into conference and hopefully come forward with a piece of legislation, but we need to get on it pretty quick.” The current 2008 farm bill, which Congress extended with a vote on Jan. 1, expires Sept. 30. Scott also emphasized the importance of farm programs from a national security perspective. “I think that one of the great things we have in America is the ability to not only feed ourselves but to feed a tremendous portion of the world,” he said. “So I’m hopeful that when we get that good ag policy out there, it will continue to play an important part of our national security and help us with our allies.” On immigration, Scott said more emphasis needs to be placed on monitoring people who come into the United States legally, noting that 40 percent of the people who are in the country illegally came into the country legally but remain in the U.S. illegally after their visas expire. He said border security will be one of the first issues taken up in the House in September. “The same gaps that allow somebody to come into this country legally who simply wants to come into the country and work and then go home are the gaps that allow people to bring things into this country that we don’t want,” Scott said. “We’ve got to deal with that aspect of border security and simultaneously we’ve got to get the ag worker program worked out.” Scott said it is unlikely the Senate immigration bill that passed earlier this year will pass in the House because of the path to legal status it allows for people currently in the U.S. illegally. “There’s already a path to citizenship in this country for somebody that has come into the country legally and I think that will be one of the key differences in any House measure and any Senate measure will be the citizenship aspect of it.”