Finally, a Farm Bill

It has been two and a half years since the House Agriculture Committee held its first hearing on the reauthorization of the Farm Bill, and almost a year since the House passed its version of the legislation.
After months of delay and extensions, on May 14, the House passed a final version of a new five-year Farm Bill by a vote of 318 to 106, a margin large enough to override President Bush's threatened veto of the nearly $289 billion measure.  The next day the Senate followed our lead, passing it by a vote of 81-15, similarly safe from a veto.
I'm frustrated the process of getting the bill to this point has been such a struggle, at times nearly screeching to a halt due to partisan politics - requiring six short-term extensions and much wrangling over funding to finally come up with a bill with enough support to pass.
This wasn't a perfect bill.  The Farm Bill does make small, critical steps for reform, yet it could have and should have gone much farther.  Critics who say we missed a golden opportunity at reform are not off base.  It is my hope, as aspects of the Farm Bill are enacted, we will be able to revisit these areas and make corrections as necessary.
In the end, though, Congress passed a conference report which addresses conservation efforts, nutrition, and renewable energy while reforming farm programs to reduce benefits going to the wealthiest of farmers, requiring direct attribution of benefits.
The Farm Bill includes a $3.8 billion agricultural disaster relief package and invests an additional $1 billion in renewable energy research, development and production.
The bill will bar all farm payments to people earning more than $500,000 in off-farm income and deny ‘direct' payments to those earning more than $750,000 income from farming.
The Farm Bill extends and provides $7.9 billion of new funding for popular conservation programs, including the Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP), Wetlands Reserve Program, and the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).
The bill reduces the tax credit for corn-based ethanol by 12 percent, to 45 cents a gallon beginning in 2009, and offers a $1.01 a gallon tax credit through 2012 for ethanol from cellulose, found in grasses woody plants, and crop residue.
The legislation rebalances loan rates and target prices among commodities, achieving greater regional equality and offers agriculture producers participating in commodity programs with a choice between traditional price production safety net and new, market-oriented revenue coverage payments.
Though much of the focus of the coverage of the Farm Bill has been on its impact on agriculture - as it should be - it should be noted while farm related aspects of the bill account for less than 20 percent of the overall bill, nearly 70 percent of the bill's spending goes to wide ranging nutrition programs - such as food stamps.
As a colleague of mine remarked, "there is very little ‘farm' in the Farm Bill anymore."  It is fitting, in the end, that the Farm Bill's full title was the Food, Conservation and Energy Act, which more accurately reflects its actual content.
Even though this bill had much of what I was looking for, it was far from perfect.  With the support of more than 550 farm, specialty crop, conservation, nutrition, consumer and religious organizations and after two years of work, we have taken a great step forward to help working American families struggling with high food prices and to ensure our farmers and ranchers can continue to supply safe, abundant, and high quality products for the world.