Committee Statement

 

The Honorable Frank D. Lucas

Ranking Member, House Committee on Agriculture

RE: Hearing to review U.S. agriculture policy in advance of the 2012 Farm Bill

 

May 13, 2010

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate your continued dedication to this farm bill process.  You and I and many members of this Committee set out two weekends ago and traveled across the nation to hear from actual producers about the current farm bill and how they would like to see future farm bills developed.  I appreciate your diligence on hearing from so many parts of the agriculture community.

I welcome the witnesses today and await their perspective on how we can better develop farm policy for the 2012 farm bill and look forward to hearing their testimony.

I am especially interested in hearing about the credit situation that our producers are operating under.  I worry that the continued excess spending here in Washington will raise interest rates and make the prospect of farming more expensive for our producers.

I also want to hear the perspective of our witnesses on current programs, especially some of the newer ones like ACRE and SURE.  After hearing from many witnesses in Iowa, Idaho, California and Wyoming, I have some concerns about the current ACRE program, especially since such a large percentage of my producers signed up for the program.  I want to hear if, under the current budget climate, we have the ability to change this program for the good of our producers or if the program just needs to be scrapped altogether.

Again, I thank the witnesses for their participation and I look forward to hearing their testimony.

 

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