Issue Position: Agriculture

Issue Position

Murphy has worked to deliver additional assistance to help struggling families cope with the skyrocketing cost-of-living. Murphy has heard firsthand from parents, social service agencies, and food banks about how difficult it's getting to make ends meet. Connecticut Food Bank is reporting as much as a 20% increase in the number of individuals and families showing up for the first time at their emergency pantry and soup kitchen locations. To bring relief, Murphy has written to Speaker Pelosi to urge the inclusion of emergency food aid in a second economic stimulus package. HR 2419, Roll Call 346

* Murphy supports expanded nutrition and hunger aid. Thirty five million people in the United States do not get enough to eat every year. That is why Murphy helped pass legislation to expand nutrition programs that help 38 million American families receive vital food aid. These provisions index the food stamp program for inflation and increase the minimum payment for the first time in 30 years. Of the 11 million people this benefit will reach over the next four years, 77% are children. With food banks nationally seeing a 15 to 20 percent increase in demand for services, this legislation provides expanded emergency food assistance to reach those Americans most in need. HR 2149, Roll Call 346

* Murphy supported funding to help Connecticut farmers better manage and preserve their lands. By helping boost USDA voluntary conservation program funding by $7.9 billion dollars over 10 years, Murphy supported the sensible, community-driven preservation of wetlands, forests and threatened species. These include $3.4 billion in additional funding for the Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP), which helps farmers implement soil and land conservation management on their lands (Connecticut received $6.2 million for EQIP in 2007), and an expanded funding baseline for the Wetland Reserve Program (WRP), which assists landowners in wetlands perseveration (Connecticut received $474,000 for in 2007). HR 2419, Roll Call 346

* Murphy is an advocate for modernizing and updating farm assistance programs. Murphy has worked to make sure that our farmers receive the assistance they need while still ensuring fiscal accountability. Murphy helped pass legislation that places a hard cap on USDA commodity assistance paid to farmers with substantial non-farm incomes, and caps "counter-cyclical" commodity payments to farmers coping with price shocks. HR 2419, Roll Call 346

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