PHONE CALLS URGENTLY NEEDED TO HOUSE
APPROPRIATIONS AG SUBCOMMITTEE MEMBERS!!
Funding is in jeopardy for the Fund for Rural America as created
in the 1996
farm bill. Please call immediately to let subcommittee members
in your state
(see list below) know that these programs are important to you
and need full
funding as called for in the farm bill.
With the House Appropriations Ag Subcommittee vote
("markup") coming as early
as May 30, we urgently need to ask House subcommittee
members to support the
Fund. They should also support other programs that Campaign
members
prioritize as urgently needing funding (with discretionary, not
mandatory
dollars). Please make the following points:
1. The Fund for Rural America provides grants for rural
development and
agricultural research that increase farm profitability, enhance
natural
resources and increase economic opportunities in rural
communities. Such
work is needed in your state and community.
2. Funding for the Fund should be in addition to annual FY97
appropriations
for research and rural development, for which sustainable ag
supporters
around the nation fighting. This funding is needed to work
through existing
rural development backlogs and to add money to research and
extension in
areas that, due to pressures on discretionary spending, have
been
underfunded.
3. There are better ways to make up the budget shortfall than
cutting the
Fund. These include repealing loopholes that enable the
nation's largest
farms to evade the farm commodity program payment limitation
and receive six
figure payments.
4. We urge that no limitations, restrictions, or earmarks be
placed on the
Fund in the appropriations bill. It should be fully funded and
allowed to
operate at the levels specified in the farm bill and be given a
chance to
work
Background - The brand new Fund for Rural America was
created in the 1996
farm bill, to be awarded as grants for rural development and
research that
increase farm profitability, enhance natural resources and
increase economic
opportunities in rural communities. USDA is developing an
implementation
plan that we hope will clarify the Fund's scope of work. Based
on language
we championed in the farm bill, it should fund a wide range of
projects, from
farmworker housing to drinking water, and from assistance for
beginning and
minority farmers to direct marketing, value-added, and research
initiatives
supporting sustainable agriculture and family farm
opportunities.
Congress recognized the importance of the visionary Fund for
Rural America by
funding it at $100 million a year for three years. Its mandatory
funding
protects it somewhat from annual appropriations fights.
Unfortunately, some
appropriations committee members are affronted that their full
funding
prerogative was removed on such a significant program - which
appears to
translate into lack of support for the program.
Early this week, when the House Budget Committee set the
overall framework
within which the FY97 appropriations process will proceed, they
proposed deep
($699 million!) cuts in ag funding! Ag Appropriations leadership
says that
with cuts of this size, even programs that normally would
receive mandatory
funding, and thus be spared the appropriations axe, are fair
game to cut.
Some proposals include substantially or even totally cutting the
Fund for
Rural America as well as major conservation and nutrition
programs also
slated for mandatory funding.
PLEASE CALL APPROPRIATIONS AG SUBCOMMITTEE
MEMBERS IN YOUR STATE A.S.A.P. TO
PROTECT THE FUND!!
House ag appropriations subcommittee members and phone
numbers are as
follows:
Joseph Skeen, New Mexico (R-2nd), Subcommittee Chair, (202)
225-2365, aide
John Ryan
John Myers, Indiana (R-7th), (202) 225-5805, aide Doug Wasitis
James T. Walsh, New York (R-27th), (202) 225-3701, aide Ron
Anderson
Jay Dickey, Arkansas (R-4th), (202) 225-3772, aide Steve Carey
Jack Kingston, Georgia (R-1st), (202) 225-5831, aide Diana Burns
Frank Riggs, California (R-1st), (202) 225-3311, aide Hayden
Milberg
George Nethercutt, Washington (R-5th), (202) 225-2006, aide
Mike Gruber
Bob Livingston, Louisiana (R-1st), (202) 225-3015, aide Paul
Cambon
Richard Durbin, Illinois (D-20th), Ranking Minority, (202) 225-
5271, aide Jim
Jepsen
Marcy Kaptur, Ohio (D-9th), (202) 225-4146, aide Bobbi Jeanquart
Ray Thornton, Arkansas (D-2nd) (202) 225-2506, aide Ed Fry
Vic Fazio, California (D-3d) (202) 225-5716, aide Don Dearmon
Dave Obey, Wisconsin (D-7th) (202) 225-3365, aide Paul Carver
THANK YOU FOR PROMPT ACTION!! KNOW THAT YOUR
ACTION IN THE PAST HAS BEEN THE
DECIDING FACTOR IN PROTECTING FUNDING FOR
SUSTAINABLE AG PROGRAMS.
For more information, feel free to call Margaret Krome, the
Campaign for
Sustainable Agriculture's Appropriations Coordinator (608) 238-
1440 or Ferd
Hoefner, with the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (202) 547-
5754.