February 27, 2013
www.gfb.org
Vol. 31 No. 9
AG GROUPS EXPRESS CONCERN OVER REID’S PLAN FOR SEQUESTRATION In a Feb. 19 letter, a collection of 14 agricultural groups, including the American Farm Bureau Federation, wrote to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) voicing concerns over the targeting of agriculture in a spending reduction plan Reid revealed to a number of key Senate members on Feb. 14. The groups suggested that decisions about farm program spending would be better made in the Senate Agriculture Committee, rather than through an omnibus spending bill. The plan, introduced in the Senate on Feb. 26 as S. 388, included cuts to defense and agriculture spending along with tax increases as a means to avoid budget sequestration. The proposed spending cuts totaled $55 billion, half coming from defense spending and half from the commodity title of the farm bill. No cuts to other sectors of the federal budget were proposed. The tax increases totaled $55 billion. The reduction in farm bill funding is similar to those in farm bills passed in the House Agriculture Committee and the Senate last year, but those bills spread the cuts among all of the farm bill titles. S. 388 would extend 24 disaster relief programs for livestock, fruit and vegetable producers that were not authorized in the farm bill extension Congress passed on Jan. 1. Those programs would also be funded retroactively for 2012. Reid’s plan calls for the elimination of direct payments from 2014 to 2023. Direct payments for 2013, scheduled to be made in October, would remain intact. The ag groups’ letter expressed further concern that this long-term move would only delay sequestration by 10 months. “Your proposed legislation seriously undermines efforts to advance much-needed reforms to meet the long-term risk management needs of America’s family farms,” The groups wrote. “While our grower members are prepared to contribute their fair share of cuts to help reduce our nation’s unsustainable deficits, we cannot support a doubling of reductions in commodity title funding. Your proposal would require our farmers to take 10 years of cuts to delay the sequester for only 10 months. That is hard to justify. We also believe it is simply unfair to assign the burden of cost reductions to only two areas of government spending – agriculture and defense.” Sequestration, a collection of mandatory budget cuts to defense and domestic programs, was included in the 2011 agreement between Congress and the Obama administration over the federal debt ceiling. The sequestration measures, which will cut $1.2 trillion from the federal budget over 10 years, is set to take place March 1. Obama administration officials have warned that the cuts will affect a wide range of federal services, including inspections of the nation’s meat supply.