Remarks by Bruce I. Knight, Chief
Natural Resources Conservation Service
at the National Farmers Union Fly-In
Washington, D.C.

September 9, 2002

Good Morning. Thank you, Dave. It is a pleasure to be here with all of you during your centennial year to talk about some of the things NRCS is doing to help farmers and ranchers conserve our natural resources and operate profitably. This morning I will talk a bit about two issues I know are important to the members of the National Farmers Union: farm bill implementation and drought.

I know you are very interested in farm bill implementation and that you recently asked Sen. Harkin to hold oversight hearings concerning farm bill implementation. In the conservation areas for which NRCS is responsible, I know you are particularly interested in the availability of new resources provided for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and Conservation Security Program. I will touch on these issues during my remarks.

First, I want to point out that the farm bill represents the single most significant commitment of resources toward conservation on private lands in the nation’s history -- nearly $13 billion over the life of the bill.

The farm bill provides a balanced portfolio of tools for conservation, including technical assistance, cost-sharing, land retirement, easements, and also a new stewardship incentives program. Implementing the farm bill will require the usual close cooperation between NRCS and conservation districts, as well as cooperation with our other traditional and new partners.

The farm bill builds upon past conservation gains; applies to all natural resources -- including soil, water, air, plants, and wildlife; provides incentives for proper conservation practices on working lands, and helps farmers and ranchers improve the environment and meet newer and higher environmental expectations -- all this while greatly enhancing the ability of farmers and ranchers to protect wetlands, water quality, and wildlife habitat.


PROGRAMS

I want to take a few minutes to summarize the funding for various programs under the new farm bill.

The bill emphasizes conservation on working lands. It provides the most dramatic growth in the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. The new farm bill provides more than $5.5 billion over six years. On the first of August, Secretary Veneman announced the release of $227 million for EQIP nationwide, in addition to the $187 million released last spring. We are using this money to provide financial and technical assistance to farmers, ranchers, and tribes.

Of the additional $227 million, $200 million is for general enrollment for EQIP yet this fiscal year. An additional $25 million is being used to provide technical and financial assistance for ground and surface water conservation. And finally, there is an additional $2.25 million of EQIP funds for water conservation activities in the Klamath Basin in California and Oregon. The balance of $47.75 million for the Klamath Basin will be released at a later date.

That’s enough about EQIP. Let me run quickly through the other programs.

The Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program increases to $360 million over six years under the new farm bill. Fifteen million dollars was released this year.

The new farm bill provides for several programs to protect working farmland, including the Farmland Protection Program and the Grasslands Reserve Program. The Farmland Protection Program will have nearly $600 million over six years. A request for proposals for $50 million in funding was published this summer in the Federal Register, and the Secretary released nearly $50 million in FPP funds just last week.

The new farm bill also permanently authorizes the Resource Conservation and Development Program to promote protection of natural resources and improvement of local economies.

In addition, the Wetlands Reserve Program has significant increases in its acreage cap.

The farm bill also provides for several other programs to protect working farmland, including the Grasslands Reserve Program. The Grasslands Reserve Program will have a quarter of a billion dollars in mandatory spending to enroll up to two million acres of grazing land.

The Conservation Security Program will provide payments for producers who have historically practiced good stewardship on their agricultural lands and incentives for those who want to do more.

Finally, the new farm bill includes several watershed-based programs.

The farm bill also contains a provision to maintain the trust between you and NRCS by ensuring that your conservation plan information remains confidential.


IMPLEMENTATION

NRCS is now deeply involved in the challenging task of implementing the farm bill. We are working hard to ensure timely and efficient implementation of the farm bill.

The Department and its agencies have established farm bill websites that contain a wealth of materials designed to inform producers. The farm bill section of the NRCS Web site contains information on many of the new conservation programs -- in both English and Spanish. We’ve been updating the web site regularly, as new information becomes available. Most recently, we added new information on EQIP and program manuals for FPP, RC & D, and WHIP. As decisions are made on other programs, we will get that information onto the web site, too.

We have already met with many producer groups and other interest groups to go over the provisions of the farm bill and to let them know what we are doing to implement the bill. We have also been putting out news releases on the various farm bill programs to get information into the hands of producers quickly. Plus, our offices around the country have been passing out packets of information and doing presentations in the community, and will continue to do so through the fall.


RULE MAKING

Implementing the new farm bill will require extensive rule making. In fact, the farm bill calls for nearly 100 regulations. We're already working to get the needed rules in place as quickly as possible: So far, USDA has published two final rules, one proposed rule, one request for proposals, and one notice of fund availability in the Federal Register.

For EQIP work beyond this fiscal year, we will publish new proposed rules to accommodate the changes that came with the new farm bill. The proposed rules will guide us while we receive comments and feedback and work toward a final rule in 2003

NRCS will publish proposed rules for the Conservation Security Program this fall. There will be at least three months for public input.

Our goal is to keep all of the rules related to farm bill implementation as simple as possible. When it comes to regulations, we believe that less is more. We will make the rulemaking process fully collaborative.

One key to getting the job done is to stay flexible and delegate as much authority as we can so that there is as much local control as possible. Deputy Secretary Jim Moseley calls this approach “Local and Lean.”

Getting rules in place quickly was important, because the farm bill included over $500 million in additional funding that we had to put to work this fiscal year.


OUTSIDE ASSISTANCE

Accomplishing the technical and administrative workload of the farm bill will take hard work by USDA employees, our traditional partners, the conservation districts, and many others.

The most direct way to say this is that the farm bill is so big; we will need lots of outside help to get the job done. In addition to the work done by our employees, we will be relying heavily on technical service providers from the private sector and public agencies to provide direct technical assistance to deliver conservation planning and application under the new farm bill. What we are doing, in effect, is creating a whole industry of certified professionals.

Putting the technical service provider process in place is proceeding on schedule. The listening sessions we conducted across the country this spring, combined with many meetings with stakeholder groups, have helped us find out what producers and providers want from a technical service provider process.

The rule for the technical service provider process will appear in the Federal Register this fall. The goal of the technical service provider process is to use private sector and public agency resources to help get the job done.


E-GOVERNMENT

We will also be using the efficiencies of e-government to help get the job done.

We are updating our state Field Office Technical Guides and have made them available on the Web. That means our conservation practice standards and technical information are available to everyone who has a computer.

We have at least one other electronic tool in place: e-forms. Landowners can now go on-line to apply for most of our conservation programs.

I assure you, we will be looking to the future to see what additional technologies we will need during the life of the farm bill. For example, we are looking at e-contracting and providing technical data -- such as soil survey information -- electronically.


DROUGHT

Farmers and ranchers in many parts of the country are suffering the effects of drought and other unfavorable conditions. With much of the country now suffering the effects of drought, I’m sure many farmers and ranchers can tell how dry things are just by looking out the window.

But we do have a tool available that lets individual operators, government officials, and others make plans, based on nationwide drought information. That tool is the Drought Monitor site on the Internet, which is produced weekly with input of data and drought assessments by NRCS experts at the National Water and Climate Center.

The current Drought Monitor shows severe to extreme – and even exceptional – drought conditions in much of the Rocky Mountains, Southwest, Great Plains, and Intermountain West; abnormally dry to moderate drought conditions in the Pacific Coast States, and much of Alaska; moderate to exceptional drought conditions in most of the States along the Atlantic Coast; and moderate to severe drought in Ohio and Kentucky. We hope that conditions will improve, but right now many farmers and ranchers are in serious trouble.

The Department is doing everything it can to assist producers including expediting emergency disaster declarations, providing emergency loans and providing crop insurance. Eleven entire states, and a total of 1,470 counties, have received disaster designations this year. To date, some 22 states have been designated eligible for emergency haying and grazing assistance. Approximately 80% of cropland is covered by crop insurance, which is up significantly from just a few years ago.

We are also providing help for livestock producers, who don’t have the same risk management tools available such as crop insurance. In July, Secretary Veneman authorized emergency haying of Conservation Reserve Program acreage and Water Bank Program contract holders in parts of several states to provide forage for livestock and to help producers in areas most severely affected by drought.

The Secretary announced $150 million in supplemental feed in Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming, where 75% or more of the pasture and range is rated as poor or very poor. Many counties around the country continue to be approved for emergency CRP grazing. These are counties that have suffered at least a 40% loss of normal moisture and forage for the preceding four months.

NRCS is also helping farmers combat the effects of drought.

We are providing incentives for farmers and ranchers in drought states to help minimize the erosion of drought-stricken rangelands. Funding from EQIP is available to help landowners plant cover crops, use farming techniques that don’t disturb the soil, and graze cattle in ways that will preserve forage.

In WHIP, we can enter into one-year wildlife emergency agreements to help landowners meet the immediate habitat needs of wildlife affected by these natural disasters. Efforts may include planting native seeds and forbs, leaving food plots within existing fields, establishing buffers, and stabilizing steep slopes.

We will continue to do whatever we can to help producers get through this drought and recover from it.

Now, I would be happy to answer a few questions.