The 2002 Farm Bill was a bipartisan agreement that made improvements in nutrition, conservation, and rural development initiatives, as well as in farm commodity programs. Republicans and Democrats worked together to negotiate this legislation because they knew that a strong Farm Bill would help make our farmers and ranchers more competitive, and would start to level the playing field in the world markets.

When we look at its results today, we find that the program has been both good for our nation’s farmers and fiscally responsible. Farm Bill programs have spent $15 billion less than originally estimated - when was the last time that you heard of a government program spending less than estimated? But in spite of this, agriculture program spending is once again under attack.

The President’s budget, written at a time of record deficits caused largely by the President’s own agenda, is asking American agriculture to take a hit for problems it didn’t create. The President and the majority’s leaders in Congress have stood by and done nothing to confront the red ink crisis that they created. They have paid lip service to fiscal responsibility, but in reality - and you can check the number yourself - they have presided over a steep, four-year crash in the government’s fiscal condition. We had a balanced budget and a surplus in the year 2000. Now we have record deficits and a dangerous increase in borrowing - largely from foreign interests.

Instead of reaching out to both parties to address this looming crisis head on, the President has proposed a budget that ignores the cause of the current problem and shifts the blame and the focus of public attention to other areas. Instead of honestly trying to deal with the deficit and its causes, the President proposes to cut programs that strengthen our rural economies and help the farmers and ranchers who produce our food and fiber.

In the 2002 Farm bill, we made a commitment to restore the farm safety net and ensure that producers and their bankers would know what to expect from the government for the next 5 years. This “counter-cyclical” safety net has worked, delivering payments to producers only whenever the price for a commodity is less than the target price. The 2002 Farm Bill is working and we have spent $15 billion less than what we allocated when the farm bill passed.

The American people want cost-effective programs that work and a balanced federal budget, and we can have both. However, to do that will require cooperation and hard work. The President knows that farm program spending accounts for less than one-half of one percent of the federal budget and that even if these programs were eliminated completely the savings would not put even a small dent in the deficit budget. But even though he knows that, the President is proposing cuts could directly hurt our farmers and send a damaging ripple effect through rural economies throughout the nation.

In the last Congress, the Administration gave aid to farmers who lost crops to disasters -but only in Florida. When we moved to include other producers who were suffering from drought and flooding disasters, Republican leaders insisted that the Farm Bill be reopened and programs cut in order to pay for the assistance. Other kinds of non-agricultural disaster aid was included in the very same bill and was provided without any offset to pay for it; it was simply added to the deficit. Only agriculture was singled out for cuts in the aftermath of last year’s devastating natural disasters.

Agriculture programs have repeatedly faced “back door” cuts through the appropriations process, deficit reduction requirements, and in the agriculture disaster funding debates over the last several years. This must stop. The first step in solving a problem is recognizing that you have one and by now that should be easy to see. The Administration and congressional leadership need to pull their heads out of the sand and get to work on getting the deficit under control without wreaking havoc on American agriculture and rural communities.

Agriculture programs are not the problem and the President and his party’s Congressional majority should not be promoting public policy positions that effectively ask farmers and rural communities to pay for the damage done by other fiscally irresponsible decisions this Administration has already made.

When Democrats and Republicans agreed to the 2002 Farm Bill we got a commitment from the Bush Administration that they would not reopen any aspect of the agreement until it had completely run its full five year authorization. The President and the Republicans in Congress may not want to remember or acknowledge this now, but I was in the room when we got this commitment and I have not forgotten.

Democrats on the House Agriculture Committee have signed a “Contract with Agriculture” that spells out what we think should be done to help farmers and rural communities, and I am hopeful that all the Democrats in the House of Representatives will be signing on. For the good of American agriculture we must fight the changes the President has proposed and make Republicans honor the promises they made in the 2002 Farm Bill.

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