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NCGA
Accelerates Momentum on Shaping New Farm Bill
June
6 , 2001
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
Contact:
Mimi
Ricketts, Director of Marketing Communications, 636/733-9004, ext.112
David
Uchic, Manager, Washington, D.C., Communications, 202-628-7001
WASHINGTON (June
6, 2001) -- The early reviews are in, and the consensus of
policymakers in Washington is that the National Corn Growers Association’s
(NCGA) bold and innovative counter-cyclical income support proposal
deserves
serious consideration.
Since NCGA unveiled
its farm bill proposal in testimony before the House
Agriculture Committee on April 25, reaction from federal agencies, Capitol
Hill offices and other commodity groups has been encouraging.
In the last month,
NCGA has been busy briefing administration officials,
congressional leaders and other farm groups on the merits of our proposal.
The timeframe for incorporating the counter-cyclical income support
proposal
into a new farm bill is limited. In all likelihood, a farm bill will
be
reported out of the House Agriculture Committee by the end of July.
The accelerated
schedule the House will follow in crafting a farm bill
provides precious little time for NCGA, its state associations, checkoff
boards and other advocates to influence their work. The Senate Ag Committee
is expected to announce its hearing schedule soon.
Brent Porteus, chairman
of the NCGA Public Policy Action Team and a
Coshocton, Ohio, farmer said: “Our biggest challenge now is to
get people to
look at our proposal and evaluate it on its merits. It’s really
important to
understand that our counter-cyclical proposal incorporates-and does
not
replace-what worked well in the ’96 Farm Bill. But it also represents
an
evolution in policy in that it capitalizes on the previous bill’s
strengths
in a manner that is WTO friendly. The beauty of our counter-cyclical
proposal is that it moves us down the road in terms of creating a good
market-driven policy that avoids the pitfalls of previous policies that
were
market-distorting.”
For more information
regarding NCGA’s farm bill proposal, please visit
NCGA’s website at www.ncga.com.
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