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Ag Appropriations Bill Moves Forward On June 22, the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee voted unanimously to report to the full Senate the fiscal year 2007 Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, worth $94.6 billion. The final bill did not include an expected provision to extend funding for the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program."IDFA is pleased that the MILC program extension was not included in the spending bill," said Chip Kunde, IDFA senior vice president of legislative affairs. "We believe this will allow Congress to craft the next farm bill with clear and unhindered opportunities for dairy reform." The bill now will go to the full Senate for consideration. The House approved its version of the bill last month — without an MILC provision, and any differences in the two will be resolved by a House-Senate conference committee. When the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee took up its agriculture spending bill last month, a provision to extend the MILC program for one month was added along with a provision to extend a peanut warehousing program. The MILC amendment, later removed from the House bill with IDFA support, would have almost ensured the continuation of the program in the 2007 Farm Bill. While proponents of the peanut provision succeeded in adding their language to the Senate bill, opponents of the MILC amendment showed early opposition to any extension of this program through the end of the farm bill. As part of the Senate spending bill, the committee accepted an amendment offered by Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Conrad Burns (R-MT) to provide disaster aid to farmers. Under this provision, dairy farmers would receive a total of $147 million in economic loss payments, using the MILC formula to calculate payouts. The amendment also would give all farmers a 30% supplemental direct payment to help offset last year's high fuel prices. The final bill provides $18.2 billion in discretionary funds out of $94.6 billion total spending for USDA and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The bill allocates $1.9 billion for FDA, which is $117.9 million more than its fiscal 2006 level and $4 million more than the House bill would give the agency. USDA's food inspection and animal and plant branches will receive a combined total of $1.8 billion. The $93.6 billion House bill (H.R. 5384) provides $18.5 billion in discretionary funding, includes cuts to some mandatory programs and does not contain additional disaster assistance funding.
Posted June 26, 2006
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