Representative Christopher P. Carney, Proudly serving the People of the 10th District of Pennsylvania image of Capitol

Agriculture

I want to tell you a little bit about myself and my background to assure you that the family farmers of Pennsylvania indeed have a friend from the 10th district. My family and I live in Dimock, in Susquehanna County. I grew up in rural Iowa in a farm family that still maintains a swine operation near Coggon. I know from my own experiences and from the folks I see every time I am home in Pennsylvania, that here in Congress, we must do everything we can to support our family farms.

We must find sensible, bipartisan solutions to the issues that face our rural areas. In fact, the very first caucus I joined after I was elected was the rural issues working group. I look forward to working with my colleagues from both parties as we roll up our sleeves and work on the 2007 Farm Bill.

Dairy issues are particularly important to me. Supporting the MILC program for our family farmers is imperative. We must do all that we can to preserve our farms and our farmland. We are rapidly losing farms across Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania. I will be a strong supporter of farmland preservation and conservation programs.

We must address the estate tax issue. Our family farmers cannot afford for the cap provisions to expire in 2010 and revert to their previous levels.

There are many issues that are not traditional “farm” issues that we need to address as well. From many of you I hear that healthcare costs and battles with insurance companies are taking time and resources that we simply cannot afford. We must do a better job of ensuring that Americans have affordable access to healthcare.

Sadly, our farms are on the decline. In the last ten years, Wayne County has lost half of its dairy farms, and Pike County only has one remaining. We have to do better than that. Once land is lost to non-agricultural use, it is almost impossible to get it back. Reversing this trend will be one of my top priorities for the 2007 Farm Bill. Our family farms are local economic engines for our communities, and we cannot afford to lose any more.

Initiatives

I have worked hard to represent my constituents’ concerns on the floor of Congress. Here are some specific measures I have co-sponsored to assist our farmers.

 

Dairy

"American Dairy Farmer Protection Act": Extends the Milk Income Loss Contract Program (MILC) through 2012 at a 45% payment rate. Additionally it establishes a $15.58 per hundredweight minimum price for Class I milk in 2008, which will be adjusted for inflation in successive years. Finally, payment will be guaranteed for up to 4.8 million pounds of milk: double the 2.4 million pounds originally provided for.

(H.R.1583)

 

Conservation

"Open Space and Farmland Preservation Act": A minimum of 15% of the amount made available to the Secretary of Agriculture for the farmland protection program will be used to fund challenge grants to encourage the purchase of conservation easements and other interests in land. This will help ensure that both farmland and open space remain prominent features of our district.

 (H.R.1152)

 

"Healthy Farms, Foods, and Fuels Act of 2007": This comprehensive bill provides many benefits for our district. Its primary aim is to reauthorize the Department of Agriculture conservation and energy programs. This bill will provide many important conservation and open land benefits, biomass energy incentives, and nutrition programs.

(H.R.1551)

 

To further protect valuable farmland and open space, I also co-sponsored H.R. 1576, which amends the Internal Revenue code to make permanent the tax deduction for charitable contributions by individuals and corporations of real property interests for conservation purposes

(H.R. 1576)

 

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