Issue Position: Agriculture

Issue Position

I am beginning in earnest to lay the groundwork for reauthorization of the 2012 Farm Bill. As a member of the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee, I helped draft the 2008 Farm Bill, which significantly stabilizes South Dakota's farm, ranch, and agri-business economies. South Dakota is dependent on a sound, responsible Farm Bill because agriculture represents more than 19 percent of our state's gross domestic product.

Since first being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1996, where I worked as a member of the Agriculture Committee to craft the 2002 Farm Bill, and now as a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee I have fought hard to promote South Dakota's agriculture economy and to protect the way of life for South Dakota's farming families by actively engaging in creating sound Agriculture policies.

The 2008 Farm Bill was enacted into law on May 22, 2008, after both the House and Senate voted to successfully override a Presidential veto. I am especially proud of this Farm Bill because many of the provisions I was able to include during the Senate Agriculture Committee's markup of the Farm Bill remained in place in the Senate-passed Farm Bill and in the final 2008 Farm Bill agreed upon by the House and Senate Conference Committee.

As Congress prepares to reauthorize farm programs as part of the 2012 Farm Bill, I look forward to hearing from South Dakota farm and ranch families on how we can improve and streamline the agriculture policy and programs now in place under the 2008 Farm Bill. With record federal deficits, we will write the new farm bill under historic budget constraints. It is important that every tax dollar dedicated to agriculture programs is spent in an efficient and fiscally responsible manner.

With record federal deficits, we will write the 2012 Farm Bill under historic budget constraints, making it crucial that every tax dollar dedicated to federal farm bill programs is spent in an efficient and fiscally responsible manner.

Provisions important to South Dakota that I authored and supported in the 2008 Farm Bill include:

* A strong Commodity Title with modified and improved safety net provisions;
* A Permanent Disaster Program for crop, livestock and grazing, which has provided more than $100 million to South Dakota agriculture producers for losses due to natural disasters;
* A much-strengthened Energy Title, including the Biomass Crop Assistance Program which will expedite the transition to advanced biofuels and cellulosic ethanol;
* Language which is keeping all of South Dakota's county Farm Service Agency offices in operation that were initially targeted for closure;
* Reauthorization of the Sun Grant Initiative, which is coordinated by South Dakota State University, as a Regional Center;
* A reauthorization of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) with a 32 million acre cap;
* Stronger mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) language;
* Tighter Payment Limitations with significant reform to focus farm payments to smaller family farms;
* Native American nutrition tribal assistance which authorizes $5 million per year, for the life of the 2008 Farm Bill, for the purchase and distribution of traditional, locally-grown food produced by Native American farmers, ranchers and producers;
* Authorization of "Open Fields" with $10 million per year for hunting and fishing public access programs like South Dakota's very successful walk-in program in which South Dakota landowners voluntarily enroll more than 1 million acres of privately owned land for public access every year. For each of the fiscal years 2010, 2011 and 2012 South Dakota is scheduled to receive $558,000 dollars under this program, for a total of $1.57 million.

Updated July 14, 2011

Source