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Panel preserves conservation, energy cuts
(Saturday, June 28, 2003 -- CropChoice news) -- Environment & Energy Daily, 06/26/03: The House Appropriations Committee passed a $17.01 billion fiscal year 2004
Department of Agriculture spending bill yesterday that cuts farmland
conservation and energy efficiency programs more than $100 million below
authorized levels.
Although Appropriations Agriculture Subcommittee ranking member Marcy Kaptur
(D-Ohio) expressed disappointment over the cuts, she did not offer
amendments to restore the funding. At the markup, Committee Chairman Bill
Young (R-Fla.) asked members to refrain from offering amendments that boost
program funding levels without offsetting those increases with cuts to other
accounts.
"This bill cuts $130 million from conservation," Kaptur said. "People
interested in conserving natural resources on the farm did not do as well as
they should have. And $63 million in renewable energy funding wasn't in
there. We need to find alternative energy sources to reduce our dependence
on foreign oil and the Agriculture Department has its head in the sand."
A spokeswoman for Kaptur said the congresswoman is not planning to offer
amendments addressing these issues on the House floor because of the $17
billion cap on agriculture spending, but will instead work on increasing
that discretionary spending limit.
The committee mark would provide a total $60.5 billion in mandatory spending
for USDA in the coming fiscal year. In order to stay within the $17.01
billion discretionary funding cap -- which would decrease the FY '03 amount
by $393 million and fall $136 million below President Bush's request,
according to House Appropriations Committee numbers -- appropriators made
cuts to farmland conservation, renewable energy and other programs.
The conservation program that would take the largest hit in the bill was
Sen. Tom Harkin's (D-Iowa) Conservation Security Program, which was slated
to receive $53 million under the farm bill but would be eliminated in the FY
'04 spending bill. Bush requested $19 million for the program.
CSP, meant to pay farmers for improving their ecological management of
working lands, was approved for the first time in the 2002 farm bill, but
has not yet been implemented by USDA. Although agency officials say they
hope to get the program on the ground by September, they offered no
guarantees at a hearing last month.
Another program that would fall below its authorized level is the
Environmental Quality Incentives Program, which the subcommittee set at $975
million, down $25 million from the farm bill-level of $1 billion. EQIP, a
popular program among livestock producers that has wide support in the
House, would still receive $125 million more under the committee mark than
the $850 million Bush requested for the program. | |
