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April
15, 2002
The
Honorable Kent Conrad
United States Senate
Room 530 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Dear
Senator Conrad:
On
behalf of the 32,000 members of the National Corn Growers Association,
I wish to express our appreciation for your continued work on crafting
a new farm bill. As important as prompt action on this legislation is
to our grower members, the NCGA strongly urges you and your colleagues
to adopt a sound farm policy that will help ensure agriculture's viability
and profitability not only for the near term, but for the years ahead.
While
the NCGA is encouraged by the Conference's funding commitment to commodity
programs, we are very concerned by proposals that risk undermining the
goal of crafting a balanced, farm safety net that minimizes the government's
influence on planting decisions. If U.S. agriculture is to achieve a
more stable rural economy and reduce dependence on emergency assistance
packages, NCGA believes that a new counter-cyclical payment program
is critically needed to better protect farm income. The apparent consensus
within the Conference to provide producers the option to update their
yields for counter-cyclical payments will further strengthen the effectiveness
of this program.
Among
the recent commodity proposals offered in the Conference, NCGA believes
the House's initial concept allows for the most appropriate balance
of support between the new counter-cyclical payments and marketing loan
assistance program. NCGA urges the Conferees to support the House's
proposal for higher counter-cyclical target prices coupled with the
marketing loan rate structure provided in the original House bill. The
initial House proposal, in our view, will best minimize production distortions
while providing a comparable or higher level of farm income support.
We
applaud your leadership and commitment to bring the 2002 Farm Bill Conference
to a resolution as promptly as possible. We appreciate your attention
and consideration of the above concerns and priorities.
Sincerely,
Tim
Hume
President
National Corn Growers Association
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