LEGISLATIVE LOG
Back to the Farm Bill By DANA COLE, Executive Director Hardwood Federation
I
t seems like Congress drafted and passed a comprehensive Farm Bill just yesterday, but the old saying that time flies is a true one. The latest iteration of the Farm Bill was enacted in 2018, and we are about to enter another reauthorization round with Congressional hearings likely to commence early next year. Recall two things about the Farm Bill. One, Congress must enact a new one every five years, and two, while it’s predominantly focused on row crop agriculture and other farm and nutrition programs, there are a number of programs of vital importance to forestry and forest products generally, and the hardwood industry specifically.
One of the Hardwood Federation’s primary areas of focus in the context of the five-year Farm Bill is the trade title, which includes provisions authorizing and funding our two key trade promotion platforms—the Market Access (MAP) and Foreign Market Development (FMD) programs. These two highly effective platforms have a proven track record of opening up and sustaining global markets for U.S.-produced hardwood products. One positive outcome from the 2018 Farm Bill rewrite was that MAP and FMD were consolidated for purposes of funding under a new umbrella program known as the Agricultural Trade Promotion and Facilitation Program (ATPFP). This was significant as the consolidation also provided for mandatory funding of $255 million over the life of the current Farm Bill to be apportioned among the programs under ATPFP. Before 2018, the Hardwood Federation and our allies that support these trade promotion programs were forced to work the Congres-
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sional appropriations process each year to advocate for MAP and FMD funding. And each year, there were a select few Members of Congress looking to defund these programs or eliminate them entirely. Now that they are seeded with mandatory money and consolidated under this more extensive umbrella program, these funding concerns are generally not an issue. Through MAP, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) partners with U.S. agricultural trade groups and state agencies to share costs of overseas marketing and promotional activities for a range of U.S. agricultural products, including hardwood forest products. MAP currently receives minimum annual mandatory funding of $200 million for fiscal years 2019 through 2023. Under the FMD Cooperator Program, USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service partners with U.S. nonprofit agricultural trade associations to address longterm opportunities to reduce foreign import constraints or expand export growth opportunities for U.S. agricultural commodities, including hardwoods. FMD also receives mandatory annual funding allocations for F.Y. 2019 through F.Y. 2023 at $34.5 million. The Hardwood Federation will be looking to preserve these mandatory funding levels at a minimum in the next Farm Bill round. Outside of trade, the Farm Bill typically includes a robust forestry title that seeks to help private landowners maintain their working forest landscapes and includes measures to enhance forest health on federal forest landholdings. Providing additional tools for the Forest W W W. N H L A .C O M
