10/3/05
Good news
Following hundreds of calls, faxes and conversations with LSP members, Senator Mark Dayton has co-sponsored the Rural America Preservation Act authored by Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND). The “Grassley-Dorgan” bill places a firm payment limit of $250,000 per year per producer on federal crop subsidies, and closes loopholes used by mega-farms
to evade the current limit of $360,000. The clincher came at a meeting between Senator Dayton and LSP members Vicki Poier (Montevideo), Evan and Linda Schmeling (Hayfield) and LSP organizer Adam Warthesen in the Senator’s Washington offices in September. Three days later, Senator Dayton signed onto the bill. LSP worked closely with the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition in Washington
(of which we are an active member), and Oxfam America (who funded the September trip to Washington mentioned above). Your action this summer—phone calls, postcards, faxes, in-person contact with Senator Dayton and his staff—made the difference. We appreciate Senator Dayton’s stand on this issue.
Payment limits, which will scale back excessive commodity crop subsidies, are a critical issue now because of the 2006 budget reconciliation, in which $3 billion will be cut from the federal ag budget due to a huge budget deficit. If you want more information on the problems of the virtually unlimited commodity program and the effects of such huge handouts going to the largest mega-farms
in the country, check our website at www.landstewardshipproject.org, or give us a call at 612-722-6377.
Here’s what we’re asking you to do
If meaningful payment limits—which will be raised in the Senate agriculture budget debate—are not enacted, the alternative to closing the budget gap is grim. In that scenario, basic farm supports are cut, conservation programs are gutted, and nutrition and rural development programs are slashed, seriously affecting millions of people. The Senate Ag Committee may vote
on this as soon as Thursday, Oct. 6, so action is needed right now.
Senator Dayton has stepped up and made a commitment by supporting payment limits—if the budget is to be cut, then a big part of it should come from the subsidies given to the largest ag operations and agribusinesses in the country, not from basic food support, conservation and family farm programs. However, Senator Coleman has not made that commitment. Unless he hears
from Minnesotans, he is likely to follow Senator Ag Committee Chair Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), and oppose any payment limits while cutting conservation, food stamps and family farm programs.
Please make a phone call today to Senator Norm Coleman. If you have to, leave a message, but tell Senator Coleman that you want him to support crop subsidy payment limits, and oppose cuts to conservation and food and nutrition programs. Tell him why: that the basic needs of people and the land come ahead of huge payments to big agribusinesses.
Senator Norm Coleman’s telephone number is 202-224-5641
Leave your name and your hometown, so they know you are a constituent. Let us know how your call went by giving us a call at 612-722-6377 or e-mailing Mark Schultz, LSP’s Policy Program Director, at marks@landstewardshipproject.org.
Background
Included in the ag budget are not only the commodity crop subsidies (primarily for the five favored crops of cotton, corn, rice, soybeans and wheat), but also our nation’s major conservation efforts (Conservation Security Program, Conservation Reserve Program, etc.), food support programs (food stamps, nutrition aid to seniors and children, etc.),
and our rural development programs. Many in Congress oppose any budget reconciliation at this point because of their concern that the tax cuts for high-income households that are in the budget reconciliation bill are unwise given the state of our economy and the funds already committed by the President for the war in Iraq and rebuilding the Gulf Coast following the hurricanes.
Nonetheless, it appears budget reconciliation will go forward, which means members of Congress will need to decide where to cut. Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-G A), the chair of the Senate Ag Committee, is pushing for a vote right away in the Senate Ag Committee —this Thursday, Oct. 6—to cut the ag budget. He opposes any commodity crop subsidy payment limits.
In terms of the agriculture budget, here’s where LSP stands on budget cuts:
1. The cuts should come from payment limits on the commodity programs. Why should any operation get hundreds of thousands of dollars year after year in crop subsidies? Even the relatively moderate payment limit of $250,000 (as proposed in the Grassley-Dorgan bill) is estimated to save more than $1 billion and with some modifications up to $2 billion—two-thirds of
the $3 billion dollars that Congress needs to cut from the ag budget. Setting an even lower payment limit— at $150,000, for example —would save even more.
2. Basic farm support should not be cut. No across-the-board cuts to commodity programs that hit all producers. Cut from the top, from the operations unnecessarily getting hundreds of thousands in taxpayer subsidies.
3. The Conservation Security Program should not be cut. CSP is an important program that should benefit all family farmers, and lead to better stewardship of the land. CSP should be fully funded and properly implemented by USDA.
4. Food support and nutrition programs should not be cut. The people who run the food shelves in Minnesota tell us that the number of hungry people throughout our region is increasing as the economy falters. We should not cut basic assistance to hungry people just to keep huge subsidy checks rolling in to the biggest corporate farms in the country.
5. Rural development programs should not be cut, either. Many of these programs are important for our rural towns, businesses and farms.
FOR MORE INFO: Contact LSP’s Policy Program by calling 612-722-6377, email marks@landstewardshipproject.org or by mail at 2919 East 42nd St., Minneapolis, MN 55406. We’re on the web at www.landstewardshipproject.org.
