Kind Opposes FY 2004
Agriculture Spending Bill
Washington, D.C. – Congressman Ron Kind (D-WI) voted against the fiscal year 2004 agriculture appropriations bill (HR 2673). He says it will, in part, eliminate more than $100 million from voluntary conservation and renewable energy programs authorized under the 2002 Farm bill.
“The House agriculture appropriations bill rewrites the Farm bill and breaks its promise of adequate conservation funding available to America’s farmers and ranchers,” stated Kind. “Farmers, especially dairy farmers and producers of fruits and vegetables, rely on these conservation programs to supplement their income while also providing cleaner air and water, protecting wildlife habitat, and providing open spaces for future generations.”
The fiscal year 2004 agriculture appropriations bill reduces three critical conservation programs by a total of ten percent. The bill restricts enrollment in the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) by slashing 50,000 acres, or nearly $56 million, from the program. The Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) was also cut by $25 million, and the yet to be implemented Conservation Security Program (CSP) was completely gutted of its authorized $53 million budget.
During last year’s debate on the Farm bill, Congressman Kind led the effort to increase funding to USDA conservation programs available to all farmers because he strongly believed it was too heavily weighted to primarily assisting the largest growers of few commodity crops in a handful of states. In fact, according to the U.S. General Accounting Office, the largest and most profitable ten percent of commodity producers receive over 70% of the available assistance.
Kind argued that a small shift in funds from commodity programs to voluntary conservation programs would significantly help more farmers in more regions of the country while simultaneously benefiting the environment.
“Despite the funds provided by the Farm bill, many farmers in Wisconsin offering to restore wetlands or to change they way they farm to improve air and water quality are currently being told they must wait until backlogged USDA conservation assistance becomes available,” concluded Kind. “Unfortunately, this agriculture appropriations bill ensures that these longs lines of farmers will only grow longer.”
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