Stalled bill keeps farmers in holding pattern
By Brandy Nance
Originally published 01:07 p.m., April 15, 2008
Updated 01:07 p.m., April 15, 2008
The 2002 Farm Bill was again extended last month and likely will be again.
Against this background, Mike Spinden of Cottonwood Falls, along with other Kansans who are a part of Kansas Agriculture and Rural Leaders, went to Washington, D.C., recently to talk with Congressman Jerry Moran and to see how the government works.
“We had an outstanding opportunity to visit with Rep. Moran,” Spinden said. “He visited with us on the floor of the House of Representatives and he also gave us a two-hour meeting at the end of one of the days we were up there. We were up there a full week.”
The group, known as KARL, is a two-year leadership training program for leaders in agriculture and rural communities. The week the group spent in Washington, D.C., was the end of the first year of the program.
“We were really there to see how the government works,” Spinden said. “(Moran) just really wanted to visit with us. It was really enlightening for me and I tell you what, I’ll vote for Moran the rest of my life if he’s running. He’s just a good, level-headed guy.”
Part of the visit in Washington, D.C., focused on the Farm Bill. Spinden said the 2002 Farm Bill likely will get another extension.
“That was the big issue there,” he said.
According to a press release by Moran’s office, Congress did not pass a new five-year Farm Bill by the end of 2007. The five-year bill that continues to operate under a congressional extension is the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002.
This week, the House and Senate negotiators remained far apart on their versions of the new bill. If a bill is not approved by Friday, Congress will have to extend the 2002 act once again.
“We should never have let the process get to this point,” Moran said. “Farmers should not have such uncertainty because of inaction in Congress on the Farm Bill.”
The one-month extension was passed in March, only three days before the bill was set to expire on March 15.
According to the press release, the House passed its version of the 2007 Farm Bill in July of 2007 and the Senate passed its version in December of 2007.
“Negotiations are ongoing between House and Senate leadership and the White House about the funding level of the bill,” the release stated. “Once a dollar amount is agreed upon, a conference committee will work out the differences in the two versions of the bill.”
Moran last week was named to the committee that will resolve the differences over the two versions.
Spinden said the Farm Bill is about 82 percent nutrition and school lunch programs.
“A really small percentage of it is actually farm-based,” he said.
Spinden said he would like to see the bill passed.
“Yes, I’d really like to see us get one,” he said. “As long as agriculture is less than 2 percent of the population and as long as they’re talking about us, it’s a good thing. I think they need to get off their haunches and do something.
“To me it seems like they’re arguing nickels and dimes. You know, fund the program and let’s get on with it.”