The 59th Speaker of the House spoke about leadership and the importance of the nation’s energy security during an appearance at the GROWMARK, FS System “Gold Rush” event in East Peoria, Illinois to introduce re-formulated Dieselex Gold.
Denny Hastert, who is an Illinois farm boy, says growing up on a farm taught him the responsibility and leadership that helped serve him well in public life. He spoke of how he became an “accidental Speaker” after Newt Gingrich retired in 1998, and then a “war-time Speaker” after 9/11. He is the longest-serving Republican Speaker in history.
I enjoyed getting the opportunity to interview the former speaker (appropriately with the gold microphone at the Gold Rush!) about his remarks, and about his thoughts on energy and farm policy. “I think you’ll see some of the subsidies that farmers have grown to rely on are going to be gone just because of the shortage in the budget,” Hastert said, noting that he has two farms himself. “What we need to do in the farm community is to make sure we keep those markets for our products that we have and can be independent of government subsidies.”
Listen to my interview with the Speaker of the House here: Dennis Hastert Interview
See photos from the FS Dieselex Gold Rush event
Let the Farm Bill games begin!
The Senate Ag Committee held the first of four scheduled farm bill hearings this past week, focusing on energy and rural development issues.
In the coming weeks there will be hearings on conservation programs Feb. 28 and nutrition issues on March 14; and most importantly, a hearing on Title I – the farm safety net programs – is scheduled for March 21.
As the Senate began to prepare for the hearings, over 80 agricultural organizations sent a letter to the chairs and ranking members of the Senate and House Ag Committees urging passage of a farm bill this year.
“The 2012 farm bill is among the most important pieces of legislation the U.S. Congress will consider this year,” the letter stated. “We ask you to reject calls for delay and aggressively act to ensure that a new, comprehensive farm bill is passed this year. Farmers need a safety net that works more effectively, and they need access to tools that help them be good stewards of our natural resources.”
The letter also stated that a temporary extension of current policy would create uncertainty without addressing important issues such as job creation hunger prevention resources.
Major commodity, social welfare and environmental organizations from the American Farm Bureau Federation to the World Wildlife Fund signed on to the letter, indicating the diverse interests in the legislation for agriculture, food assistance and conservation.
2012 is likely to be a very interesting year for agricultural policy as we face the writing of a new Farm Bill during a presidential election year with a huge federal deficit.
Since the GROWMARK cooperative system represents the interests of farmers on the federal level, I talked with GROWMARK government affairs director Chuck Spencer to get his perspective on what might happen in 2012 as it relates to farm policy, after the “super committee” failed to reach an agreement which would have created an new farm bill. “The super committee did find that the agriculture community stepped up to the plate and were in agreement to a $23 billion reduction over a ten year period in farm program spending,” he said. “The discussion now is ‘where do you begin?’ Do you start over? Do you begin where everybody agreed and then move forward?”
Chuck believes the groundwork has been laid and he expects the agriculture committees in Congress to use that as a framework for discussion. “It’s important to note that while the farm bill will expire in 2012, it either needs to be extended or they’ll need to come to agreement and pass a new one or the 1949 Farm Bill goes into play which is dealing with parity prices, and that would certainly be a budget buster,” Chuck noted.
Chuck also pointed out what most of us in the agriculture business already know – that of the 15 titles in the farm bill, the commodity title is what gets most of the attention, even though it only makes up 2/10ths of a percent of the federal budget. “It’s provided as a safety net, a way to manage risk,” Chuck said. “You’ll notice that 90% of the groups offering proposals to the super committee asked for a revenue-based, risk management-based safety net.”
Listen to my conversation with Chuck Spencer here: Chuck Spencer Interview
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack chose the John Deere Des Moines Works facility to talk about his priorities for the 2012 Farm Bill, which he says is really a misnomer.
“After all, for decades this bill has been about a whole lot more than just farming. It’s been about energy, it’s been about nutrition, it’s been about jobs. Now, some may keep calling it the Farm Bill out of convenience, or maybe even out of tradition; but I think we’re doing it a disservice,” Vilsack said.
The secretary acknowledged that fiscal and political realities will have an impact on the outcome for any legislation in the coming year. “So our priorities must be clear. We simply need to do more with less,” he said.
Read the secretary’s speech here.
The National Corn Growers Association has officially unveiled its idea for a new disaster assistance title in the next farm bill.
NCGA is proposing the Agriculture Disaster Assistance Program (ADAP) “that will modify and replace the existing Average Crop Revenue Election Program and provide a more effective and responsive safety net for growers.”
“Responding to a charge by our voting delegates to investigate transitioning direct payments into programs that allow producers the ability to mitigate risk, our grower-led Public Policy Action Team developed a crop-specific, revenue-based risk management tool that provides a safety net when growers are facing a loss,” said NCGA President Bart Schott. “We are focusing on simplification and faster delivery of assistance when it is needed.”
ADAP builds on the existing structure of ACRE and is designed to address the need for simplification and elimination of overlapping coverage with individual crop insurance. Changes include the use of harvest prices and crop reporting districts to set the crop revenue guarantee and would establish a guarantee based on the five-year Olympic average of revenue.
Read more here.
I talked to NCGA first vice president Garry Niemeyer at the Farm Progress Show about what they want to see in a new farm bill. “We’re really interested in a farm bill that provides critical assistance to farmers when they face a loss due to adverse weather, crop diseases and volatile markets,” Garry said, adding that the NCGA team was working on ways to upgrade ACRE. “Since that is part of what we started a year ago, get it fine tuned, and get an ACRE program that will work.”
I posted my interview with Garry earlier, but you can listen to or download it again here. NCGA 1st VP Garry Niemeyer
2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album
Farm Progress Show is always a great venue for policy makers to meet with farmers and talk about issues important to them, like a new farm bill and government regulations.
National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) First Vice President Garry Niemeyer brought his own U.S. Representative Bobby Schilling (R-IL) in for a press conference on Tuesday to share some of perspectives as a freshman congressman and new member of the House Agriculture Committee. “I think as most people are aware, it’s been quite a storm in Washington DC the last seven months,” Schilling said. “Coming out of the business sector right into Congress, it’s been quite frustrating for me to see what’s happening in our nation’s capitol.”
As far as the Farm Bill is concerned, Schilling says the “super committee” on reducing the deficit may make decisions that will impact farm programs so the agriculture committee needs to make recommendations on how spending could be cut. “Because if we don’t they will just go after dollar amounts without looking at where appropriate cuts could be made,” he said.
Listen to some of Congressman Schilling’s comments during the press conference here. Cong. Bobby Schilling
Congressman Tim Johnson (R-IL), who also serves on the House Agriculture Committee, came by the Farm Progress Show on Wednesday to visit with leadership of the Illinois corn and soybean growers associations. He is pictured here(striped shirt) with Illinois Soybean Association (ASA) treasurer Doug Winter, Illinois Corn Growers president Jim Reed and ISA president Matt Hughes.
Johnson says he is optimistic that they can come up with a Farm Bill that is workable, meets budget constraints and still has a safety net for farmers. “And we need to make sure the House Agriculture Committee and people who know American agriculture are the people framing policy,” Johnson said.
Johnson also shares the concerns that farmers in the state have about government regulations making it more difficult to farm. “USDA, USDOT and most particularly EPA tying our left hand is a real burden,” he said. “This administration more than any other administration in history has done more to damage the ability of farmers to make a living.”
Meghan Grebner of Brownfield Ag News and I interviewed Cong. Johnson together. Cong. Tim Johnson
2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album
I’ll bet we see this look a lot next week when the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry holds a hearing titled, “Looking Ahead: Kansas and the 2012 Farm Bill.” Ranking committee member Senator Pat Roberts will be hosting. He sort of set the tone for the hearing in a letter to President Obama in advance of next week’s event. Click on the link for the full letter to see the list of regulations that will be addressed.
Dear Mr. President:
I write to provide you with insight into actions your Administration is considering that could negatively impact rural America.
At a town hall meeting you hosted in Illinois earlier this week, a farmer expressed the concerns of many producers related to proposed regulations and directives impacting their farming operations. You asked the producer if there was a specific issue concerning him. He mentioned issues including dust pollution, noise pollution and water runoff. You responded, “Yes. Here’s what I’d suggest is the – if you hear something is happening, but it hasn’t happened, don’t always believe what you hear.” You then went on to imply that many of these concerns were created by lobbyists and associations in Washington.
I want to assure you that this farmer’s concerns are justified. To better inform you about the actions being taken by your Administration, included below is a list of proposed rules, directives and actions impacting rural America since your inauguration. While this list is not complete or comprehensive, it provides an overview of the increased regulations and resulting costs American agriculture and rural America face due to actual or proposed actions taken by federal agencies under your direction. The partial list of concerns is as follows:
GIPSA Rule Impacting Livestock Producers – USDA has proposed a new regulation for livestock marketing that will undo years of progress and innovation in the livestock industry. Many of the provisions of this proposed rule were rejected on a bipartisan basis during debate on the last Farm Bill, which was signed into law when you were serving in the United States Senate. (find the rest of the letter here)
The meeting will take place Thursday, August 25 2011, 9:00am – 12:00pm at the Hilton Wichita Airport Hotel, 2098 Airport Road, Wichita, KS 67209. You may participate in the hearing by submitting written testimony which will be included in the official record of the hearing. A copy of your testimony can be submitted at the hearing or can be sent to the committee no later than Sept. 1. Send your testimony to aghearing@ag.senate.gov or to U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture Nutrition and Forestry, 328A Russell Senate Office Bldg, Washington, D.C. 20510.
In this week's program you can listen in to my conversation with Bill Howard, Fastline, about their new mobile game app, AgRacer.
