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Agriculture
Committee's $5.5 Billion in Economic Assistance is a Loss for Corn and
Soybean Growers
(6-21-01)
Corn growers' market
loss assistance payments may be less than last year's if the House Agriculture
Committee's position is carried through and signed into law. Yesterday,
the House Agricultural Committee approved a $5.5 billion economic assistance
package, when it passed H.R. 2213, a bill intended to address the economic
difficulties affecting U.S. agriculture. These funds were authorized
in the budget resolution the President signed into law in May.
The Committee began
its work yesterday by discussing Chairman Larry Combest's (R-TX) aid
package, which totaled $6.5 billion and included supplemental AMTA payments
at the 1999 level. To pay for the extra $1 billion in his plan, Combest
proposed dipping into a pool of new monies secured to write a new farm
bill.
The debate soon
turned contentious, when an amendment capping the assistance package
at the authorized level of $5.5 billion was offered by Ranking Minority
member Charlie Stenholm (D-TX) and Rep. John Boehner (R-OH). The Stenholm-Boehner
amendment passed in a close 24-23 vote. Therefore, supplemental AMTA
funds were cut from $5.5 billion ($.36 cents per bushel) to $4.6 billion
(approximately $.31 cents per bushel).
In a letter to House
Agricultural Committee Chairman Combest, NCGA President Lee Klein wrote,
"We feel strongly that the Committee should disperse these limited
funds in a manner similar to the FY '00 economic assistance package-addressing
the needs of the eight major crops-corn, wheat, barley, oats, cotton,
rice, sorghum and oilseeds. It is these growers who have suffered greatly
from the last two years of escalating fuel and input costs. The expectation
of these program crop farmers is certainty for a continuation of the
supplemental AMTA at the 1999 level."
It is unclear when
the Senate Agricultural Committee will take action on this issue. It
is expected the Senate will act soon, because USDA must disperse these
funds in the current fiscal year, which ends September 30, 2001. To
view a copy of Lee Klein's letter, please go to http://www.ncga.com/public_policy/letters/pdf/combest062001.pdf.
Last
reviewed June 21, 2001
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