Press Release

May 23, 2006

“Gravely Disappointed” by House Leadership Decision to Cut Crucial Storage Program

Washington, D.C. Congressman Sanford Bishop, a Member of the House Appropriations Committee, expressed his disappointment with the action taken today by the House Republican Leadership and the Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee that stripped language from the Fiscal Year 2007 Agricultural Appropriations bill, which would have extended the peanut storage and handling fee program through Fiscal Year 2007.

“I am very disappointed that my colleagues on the House Agriculture Committee, using a procedural technicality in our House rules, moved to reject language we authored in the Appropriations Committee, to extend the peanut storage and handling fee program. Without this extension, the program could be dangerously close to ending at the end of this year, which could prove disastrous for most of our peanut growers and processors here in the Second Congressional District,” Congressman Bishop said. “This was an important step in continuing a program which is critical to one of Georgia’s most important agriculture assets, the Peanut Industry.”

The program, which was created under the 2002 Farm bill, will expire at the end of Fiscal Year 2006 without action by Congress. The original language was inserted into the FY07 Agriculture Appropriations bill by Congressman Bishop and Congressman Jack Kingston, both members of the Appropriations Committee.