Vilsack Tells missouri farmers, Fate of farm Bill May Be in Budget Super Committee November 13, 2011

US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack says the fate of the 2012 Farm Bill may be in the hands of the 2011 Budget Super Committee.”Whether or not they accept the recommendation of the Ag Committee leaders”, said Vilsack.

He made that statement to KMBC News after a Thursday visit with farmers in Odessa. He was touring the area with Mo-5 Congressman Emanuel Cleaver. Cleaver expects to be the area’s new member of Congress when the state’s Congressional lines are re-drawn (see previous post).

“A lot of it (the Farm Bill) is going to depend on the committee of 12”, Vilsack said.

.”Whether or not they accept the recommendation of the Ag Committee leaders”, said Vilsack.

The Agriculture Committee in Congress is trimming the Farm Bill by about $23 billion in an effort to trim the federal budget.

The other concern expressed by the Agriculture Secretary is “whether or not they (the Super Committee) give us the opportunity to put in that budget bill, the framework of the Farm Bill.

The Budget Super Committee’s work is due November 23.

If it is not on time, and there is no extension, them a set of automatic cuts totaling $1.2 trillion dollars takes effect.

Politico: Farm Belt Braces for Budget Cuts October 13, 2011

Politico reports:

Under pressure to cut farm subsidies, Agriculture Committee leaders in Congress are closing in on a 10-year savings target near $23 billion, about a third less than what House Republicans and President Barack Obama had proposed but still a significant change.

No final announcement has been made, but the bipartisan leadership met Tuesday evening, and three lawmakers told POLITICO that they expected the final savings to be in $23 billion range.

Upon returning to the Senate floor on Wednesday, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), who chairs the Senate panel, huddled at length with Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), a major force as well on farm policy.

Kansas Senator Pat Roberts is the ranking Republican on the Senate Ag panel. He and Stabenow have held hearings on the Farm Bill in various parts of the country, including Kansas.

Stabenow’s goal — together with House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) — has been to come up with a single recommendation this week for the new joint debt committee, charged with putting together a $1.2 trillion deficit reduction package next month.

“Chairwoman Stabenow has been working closely with farmers, House committee leaders and members of her own committee to develop a bipartisan set of recommendations that both strengthen American agriculture and contribute to deficit reduction,” her spokesman said. “They are continuing to discuss options and determine a final agreement, and aim to send a letter to the Joint Committee by Friday outlining their recommendations.”

Indeed, the precise assumptions behind the $23 billion target could still be changed and are complex in their own right. But to achieve that level of savings almost certainly means the end of the current system of direct cash payments costing almost $5 billion annually.

With high crop prices and net farm income predicted to jump 31 percent this year, those payments have become hard to defend politically, since much of the money goes to households earning more than $100,000. But the agriculture committees have been anxious to retain some of the savings to help finance new forms of crop insurance to protect growers against a rapid drop in revenues.