(TEXARKANA, AR) – Monday, April 8, 2002, U.S. Representative Mike Ross (D-AR) was joined by Rep. Charles Stenholm (D-TX), Ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, along with Reps. Marion Berry (D-AR) and Max Sandlin (D-TX) to discuss the current status of the Farm Bill with members of the agriculture community throughout Arkansas’s Fourth Congressional District.  The members are holding meetings during the day in Texarkana, El Dorado, Lake Village, and Pine Bluff. 

“There has never been a more critical time for our agriculture community,” Ross said.  “This legislation is vital to the livelihoods of our farm families as well as the economy of the Fourth District and our state. I’m very pleased to have Congressmen Berry, Sandlin and Stenholm joining me to give our farmers an update on this landmark legislation.” 

Last year, Congress began work to re-write the nation’s current farm policy that was enacted in the 1996 Freedom to Farm law.  As members of the House Committee on Agriculture, Stenholm, Berry, and Ross helped to author a fair and balanced new Farm Bill that creates a needed safety net for American agriculture producers during lean years and that increases conservation.  This bill, the Farm Security Act of 2001, was overwhelmingly approved by the House of Representatives in October. 

The Senate version, however, which was passed in February 2002, included an amendment that would hurt many Arkansas farmers by reducing subsidy payment limits from $500,000 to $275,000.  The bill now stands in a conference committee, where representatives from the House and Senate are working to iron out the differences between the two versions to come up with a final Farm Bill. 

Congressman Stenholm, one of the mostly highly respected voices for agriculture in the United States Congress, is currently serving as a member of the House-Senate conference committee on the Farm Bill.  During Monday’s meetings, he gave an update on where negotiations within the conference committee on the Farm Bill currently stand.  The members also provided an update on what the final legislation may look like and when they can expect the Farm Bill to be enacted into law. 

“We cannot afford to continue losing more and more farm families each year.  As the negotiations on the Farm Bill continue, we are committed to working hard to see that the final measure is one that will truly help our producers continue providing the food and fiber on which our nation depends, and we will continue fighting to see that this new farm policy is enacted as soon as possible,” said Ross. 

“Good infrastructure is key to attracting businesses and industries, and both of these highways are critical to economic development in Arkansas,” Ross said.  “This funding to pay for the construction of these important projects will bring jobs and opportunities to our area and inject money into our local economies.  With the release of this appropriation, we will essentially complete I-49 from Texarkana to the Lousiana border and continue the progress on I-530 from Little Rock south to Wilmar.”  

The funding for I-49 and I-530 released by the Department of Transportation is as follows: 

            $6,797,000 for Highway 71 (Interstate 49) Texarkana South 

             $3,884,000 for Interstate 530 Extension (Interstate 69 Connector) 

The Department of Transportation has not yet released $7.5 million in funding for the Great River Bridge also appropriated in the FY 2002 Transportation Appropriations Bill.  This funding is being held because it was among a number of projects throughout the country that were included under the Bridge Discretionary Program, an account normally reserved for maintenance and repair costs to existing bridges.  Congressman Ross, along with other members of the Arkansas Congressional Delegation, is working to see that the procedural matter is corrected so that the funding can be obligated. 

“While I am pleased that the Department of Transportation has released the funds for Interstates 49 and 530, I am disappointed that funding for the Great River Bridge is being held.  We have been working with members of our delegation and the appropriators to get this technicality corrected through a supplemental appropriations bill, and I am optimistic that it will be favorably resolved in the coming months.  The construction of the Great River Bridge is critical to the economy of southeast Arkansas, and I remain committed to seeing that this funding is released to our state as Congress intended.”