Providing for Consideration of H.R. 2419, Farm, Nutrition, and Bioenergy Act of 2007
Floor Speech
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 2419, FARM, NUTRITION, AND BIOENERGY ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - July 26, 2007)
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Mr. WELCH of Vermont. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California for his leadership on the Rules Committee and leadership on the Agriculture Committee in helping us work through this.
I want to also thank the extraordinary generosity, personal and political, with his time, Mr. Peterson, who was extremely responsive to all the concerns of the Members, and Mr. Goodlatte for his excellent work on this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I support this rule. First of all, two things: One, this bill is a departure from the past farm bills, and I will just give a few straight-out facts. One, commodity programs have been cut 43 percent compared to what they were in the 2002 farm bill. Two, conservation spending has been increased 32 percent. Three, nutrition has been increased 46 percent. So there is a clear change in emphasis.
Second, there is in this rule 33 amendments that have been allowed to be in order, including amendments that will allow this Congress to take further action, if it so chooses, on commodity reform. And that is done with the consent and the approval of the Chair of the Agriculture Committee.
So, Mr. Speaker, this bill clearly reflects the necessity for reform and balance in the farm bill. And, number two, the rule clearly allows this body to have this as a first step and to consider more dramatic reform.
Finally, I want to address the MILC program, or the milk program, that is of particular concern to dairy farmers in Vermont. Our farmers in Vermont are hanging on by their fingernails. A year ago when milk prices were at record lows, they also experienced horrible weather, high energy prices, high grain prices, and the folks who hung on did so against extraordinary odds. And how they did that I will never know. But I can tell you this, and I believe what is true for us in Vermont is true for every State across this Nation: Local agriculture not only is essential to our economy, but it is essential to our environment. It is essential to our definition of who we are. And what we must do in this bill that Mr. Peterson in the committee and Mr. Goodlatte in his work begin to do is put an emphasis on local agriculture. Is it a beginning? It is just the beginning because we have to do more in the commodity program, in all of the farm policies that recognize that it is our family farmers who should be the intended folks that we are trying to help.
We, in this farm bill, by preserving the MILC program, are at least providing to the hardest-working family farmers a lifeline when, through forces that are completely beyond their control, they need some assistance to stay in business. And, Mr. Speaker, that is an important component of this bill, and I thank the Chair for including it.
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