U.S. Congressman Michael C. Burgess, M.D. 26th District of Texas

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Agriculture & Natural Resources

Throughout America’s history, we have relied on farmers and ranchers to provide us with a wholesome and hearty food supply. We owe our continued prosperity to their dedication, innovation, and resilience. America has the safest, least expensive, most abundant food supply of any country in the world, and we are truly fortunate. Agricultural producers in Texas' 26th District help to carry on this legacy from generation to generation.

I represent three counties in Texas that have a strong legacy of providing for the agriculture needs of our region, state, and nation. The major commodities in Cooke County are beef cattle, dairy, feed grains, forage/hay, forestry, and horses. Denton County primarily provides beef cattle, feed grains, forage/hay, and horses, while Tarrant County additionally provides honey, cotton, nursery/greenhouses, and wheat.

Farm Bill

H.R. 2419, the Food and Energy Security Act of 2007 passed the House of Representatives on July 27, 2007 by a 231-191 vote. The Senate version of this bill passed through that chamber on December 14, 2007 by a 79-14 vote. Conference negotiations continue to work out the differences between the House and Senate versions and some provisions that have expired under the existing 2002 Farm Bill (Public Law 107-171) have been extended under the Consolidated Appropriations Act for FY2008 (Public Law 110-161).

I realize that farm subsidies are a complicated issue and that small American farmers often need federal aid and assurance that their government offers a safety net for production and price variations due to flooding, drought, or disease. At the same time, the large increases in market prices of corn and other commodities since the summer of 2006 have created concern that many federal programs to subsidize crops have artificially inflated food prices. Congress needs to be certain that our agriculture policy does not place added financial burden upon American families because of increased demand to turn our food into fuel.

Emergency Disaster Loans

When a county has been declared a disaster area by either the President or the Secretary of Agriculture, agricultural producers in that county may become eligible for low-interest emergency disaster (EM) loans available through USDA's Farm Service Agency. Producers in counties that are contiguous to a county with a disaster designation also become eligible for an EM loan. EM loan funds may be used to help eligible farmers, ranchers, and aquaculture producers recover from production losses (when the producer suffers a significant loss of an annual crop) or from physical losses (such as repairing or replacing damaged or destroyed structures or equipment, or for the replanting of permanent crops such as orchards). A qualified applicant can then borrow up to 100% of actual production or physical losses (not to exceed $500,000) at a below-market interest rate (which is currently 3.75%). Once a county is declared eligible, an individual producer within the county (or a contiguous county) must also meet the following requirements for an EM loan. A producer must (1) be a family farmer and a citizen or permanent resident of the U.S.; (2) experience a crop loss of more than 30% or a physical loss of livestock, livestock products, real estate or property; and (3) be unable to obtain credit from a commercial lender, but still show the potential to repay the loan. Applications must be received within eight months of the county's disaster designation date. Loans for nonreal estate purposes generally must be repaid within one to seven years; loans for physical losses to real estate have terms up to 20 years. Depending on the repayment ability of the producer and other circumstances, these terms can be extended to 20 years for nonreal estate losses and up to 40 years for real estate losses. The EM loan program is permanently authorized by Title III of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (P.L. 87-128), as amended, and is subject to annual appropriations. Traditionally, an appropriation was made for EM loans within the regular agriculture appropriations bill. However, most of the funding for the program in recent years has been provided through emergency supplemental appropriations. Emergency provisions in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-113) provided funding to make $547 million in EM loans over a multi-year period. Total EM loans made were $90 million in FY2001, $58 million in FY2002, just under $100 million in FY2003, $30 million in FY2004, $23 million in FY2005, and approximately $51 million in FY2006.

Federal Crop Insurance

The federal crop insurance program is administered by USDA's Risk Management Agency. The program is designed to protect crop producers from unavoidable risks associated with adverse weather, and weather-related plant diseases and insect infestations. A producer who chooses to purchase an insurance policy must do so by an administratively determined deadline date, which varies by crop and usually coincides with the planting season. Crop insurance is available for most major crops. < The federal crop insurance program was instituted in the 1930s and was subject to major legislative reforms in 1980, and again in 1994 and 2000. The Agriculture Risk Protection Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-224) pumped $8.2 billion in new federal spending over a five-year period into the program primarily through more generous premium subsidies to help make the program more affordable to farmers and enhance farmer participation levels, in an effort to preclude the need for ad-hoc emergency disaster payments. Since 2000, the federal subsidy to the crop insurance program has averaged about $3.3 billion per year, up from an annual average of $1.1 billion in the 1990s and about $500 million in the 1980s. Nearly two-thirds of the current federal spending is used to subsidize producer premiums, and the balance primarily covers the government share of program losses and reimburses participating private insurance companies for their administrative and operating expenses. Under the current crop insurance program, a producer who grows an insurable crop selects a level of crop yield and price coverage and pays a premium that increases as the levels of yield and price coverage rises. However, all eligible producers can receive catastrophic (CAT) coverage without paying a premium. The premium for this portion of coverage is completely subsidized by the federal government. Under CAT coverage, participating producers can receive a payment equal to 55% of the estimated market price of the commodity, on crop losses in excess of 50% of normal yield, or 50/55 coverage. Although eligible producers do not have to pay a premium for CAT coverage, they are required to pay upon enrollment a $100 administrative fee per covered crop for each county where they grow the crop. The fee can be waived by USDA for financial hardship cases. Any producer who opts for CAT coverage has the opportunity to purchase additional insurance coverage from a private crop insurance company. For an additional premium paid by the producer, and partially subsidized by the government, a producer can increase the 50/55 catastrophic coverage to any equivalent level of coverage between 50/100 and 85/100, (i.e, 85% of yield and 100% of the estimated market price), in increments of 5%. For many insurable commodities, an eligible producer can purchase revenue insurance. Under such a policy, a farmer potentially can receive an indemnity payment when actual farm revenue falls below the target level of revenue, regardless of whether the shortfall in revenue was caused by poor production or low farm commodity prices.

Country of Origin Labeling (COOL)

The 2002 farm bill (§10816 of P.L. 107-171) required retailers to provide country-of-origin labeling for fresh produce, red meats, peanuts, and seafood by September 30, 2004. However, Congress has twice postponed implementation for all but seafood; COOL now must be implemented by September 30, 2008. In the 110th Congress, supporters have introduced bills to mandate COOL by September 30, 2007. I am generally supportive of voluntary COOL programs.
S. 2120, The Milk Regulatory Equity Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-215) The Milk Regulatory Equity Act of 2005, S. 2120, was signed into law on April 11, 2006. S. 2120 addresses several federal milk marketing order issues relevant to the western United States. Among the milk marketing order issues addressed in this bill are: 1) the regulation of fluid milk processors who operate a plant in a federal order area, are not regulated by that order, and ship packaged milk into a state marketing order (not a federal order); 2) the regulation of fluid processors who produce, package and distribute their milk, also known as producer-handlers or producer-distributors; and 3) the exclusion of Nevada from federal milk marketing orders. This legislation was widely supported by the diary industry. I voted for S. 2120.

For related websites, please visit the following links:

U.S. Department of Agriculture

House Agriculture Committee

Texas Department of Agriculture

Texas Animal Health Commission

Environment, Energy and Agriculture at firstgov.gov