Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROGERS of Alabama. Mr. Chairman, though I plan to withdraw this amendment, I seek to enter into a colloquy with my good friend, Chairman Conaway, regarding the Conservation Reserve Program and to express concern with the number of acres authorized in the CRP program in H.R. 2.

Chairman Conaway has been a strong chairman and a leader for America's farmers, and for that I would like to thank him.

CRP is a well-intended program that has a place in protecting sensitive lands; however, the program should not be expanded beyond levels currently authorized in the Agriculture Act of 2014.

The Agriculture Act of 2014 reduced the national CRP acreage cap from 32 million acres to 27.5 million acres in 2014 and to 24 million acres in 2018. H.R. 2 would then increase this cap by 1 million acres each year to a maximum enrollment of 29 million acres by 2023.

USDA's Farm Service Agency's CRP enrollment data reveals that, for the 2016 fiscal year, 23.9 million acres were enrolled in CRP, representing approximately 7 percent of the U.S. cropland. Rental rates and leases offered by the Federal Government are often much more lucrative than farming would be.

While congressional directives and a favorable farm economy in prior years led to lower CRP enrollment, nearly one-quarter of all land enrolled in CRP has been enrolled for more than 20 years, including 2.7 million acres, or 12 percent, enrolled for more than three decades since the inception of the program. During the 2016 fiscal year, payments for CRP lands totaled $1.7 billion.

As our Nation's farmers and ranchers face the challenge of meeting the increasing demand for food and fiber in the U.S. and abroad, I ask the chairman: Should America's producers be forced to continue competing with Federal programs for access to farmland?

I yield to the gentleman from Texas.

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