Budget
Reconciliation Markup Postponed, NCGA Continues Support (10-07-05)
The Senate Agriculture Committee postponed markup yesterday of the
budget reconciliation package due to concerns over the addition of
an expired dairy program and other objections raised by committee
members.
The $3 billion reconciliation package is proposed by committee Chairman
Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga) and would meet the required cuts in U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) funding as mandated in the budget
reconciliation package passed by Congress earlier this year.
The package would reduce all USDA Title I program payments by 2.5
percent; cut spending for conservation and nutrition programs; and
would reauthorize the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program which
expired last month. The MILC program, under the Chambliss proposal,
would pay milk producers at a 30 percent lower rate than in the previous
program.
The package also extends much of the 2002 farm bill to the end of
FY 2011. The bill is due to expire in 2007. Chambliss in several
meetings with agriculture leaders emphasized it is his intention
to write a new farm bill in 2007 as scheduled and that extending
the bill to 2011, the Agriculture Committee could protect the baseline
budget authority for the farm bill.
NCGA President Gerald Tumbleson said, “We applaud the chairman’s
efforts in addressing a number of difficult issues in this package
and doing so in an even handed fashion. No one likes to see cuts,
especially as costs go up and prices go down, but the chairman has
minimized the pain and spread it out across the board. NCGA has made
it clear to chairman Chambliss that our organization is in strong
support of his package. We see the extension of the bill as preserving
budget authority when a new bill is written and gives our U.S. trade
negotiators a stronger position in the trade talks coming up next
week.”
There has been no word on when the markup will be re-scheduled;
NCGA expects action by the committee within the next couple weeks.
The committees of jurisdiction must complete their budget reconciliation
packages by Oct. 26.