UPDATE:
- House proposes Farm Bill that would cut funding for nutrition programs and hurt conservation efforts
- Current negotiations in Farm Bill conference would reduce funding to nutrition and conservation programs
The House and the Senate each passed a farm bill last year that included billions of dollars in spending above the current baseline on food stamps, conservation, energy and aid to the fruit and vegetable industry ($11
billion in the Senate version and $8.5 in the House). However House Agriculture Chairman Peterson and ranking member Bob Goodlatte, have proposed a new farm bill that includes a maximum increase of only $6 billion, slashing nutrition program funds and reducing acreage available for conservation. This proposal and the way the House has gone about it is causing apprehension among agriculture leaders in the Senate.
Senate Members voice disapproval
Congressman McGovern expressed his concerns with potential cuts in Nutrition Title of the Farm Bill on the House floor. He told Congress, “This Farm Bill should not be negotiated on the backs of the hungry. Feeding hungry people is never wrong, but taking food out of their mouths is. And that’s what a reduction in the House-passed domestic nutrition title would do”.
To fully fund nutrition and conservation programs subsidy caps must be established!
To help feed the hungry, address rising diet-related health concerns and reduce environmental degradation, nutrition and conservation programs must be fully funded. Establishing payment caps (similar to Dorgan-Grassley) of commodity subsides (rather than cutting funds to food stamps programs and decreasing land available for conservation) would provide the funding these programs need to succeed.
Please join friends and farmers on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 and contact your Senator or House Representative with this important message:
I am calling/writing to urge Senator/Representative ________ not to support a Farm Bill that takes food from the mouths of the hungry, hurts family farmers, and endangers our natural habitats. Congress(wo)man _______ should fully fund nutrition and conservation programs (as proposed in the Senate version of the Farm Bill) by establishing commodity subsidy caps.
Call-In Date - WEDNESDAY, February 27, 2008
If you don't know your Senator and Representative’s contact information, go to http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ and click on your state
PUT IT ON YOUR CALENDAR: Call, email or fax this coming Wednesday, February 27th to make your message heard loud and clear!
AND - if you are anywhere near Louisville, JOIN US on Weds. 2/27 for a Rally in front of Senator McConnell's office. See the attached flyer for details.Download McConnell-Rally-Flyer.pdf
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