U.S. Senator Ken Salazar

Member of the Agriculture, Energy and Veterans Affairs Committees

 

2300 15th Street, Suite 450 Denver, CO 80202 | 702 Hart Senate Building, Washington, D.C. 20510

 

 

For Immediate Release

November 3, 2005

CONTACT:    Cody Wertz – Press Secretary

                        202-228-3630

Jen Clanahan – Deputy Press Secretary

                        303-455-7600

 

UPDATE: Ag Approps Bill Heads to President for Signature with Sen. Salazar’s Pine Beetle & Rural Fuel Prices Amendments Included
Reports on Pine Beetle Efforts and Rural Fuel Prices, As Well As $2M For CSU Ag Research and Over $25M For Ag Resource Conservation Programs, Secured by Salazar

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The President’s signature is all that needs to happen for rural mountain towns to get specific answers from the Forest Service on combating pine beetle infestations and at the same time farmers and ranchers will be able to highlight their struggles with soaring fuel prices through a USDA report to Congress. Senator Salazar successfully included those two amendments in the FY06 Agriculture Appropriations conference report.

In addition Senator Salazar was able to successfully provide farmers, ranchers and rural communities across Colorado and the Nation access to over $25 million in resource conservation funding through appropriations requests included on the FY06 Agriculture Appropriations conference report. The report passed the Senate today by a vote of 81 to 18.

“I strongly urge the President to sign this bill. The research and funding included in this bill will help protect and preserve the livelihoods of Coloradans living in our rural communities on the eastern plains and mountain towns,” said Senator Salazar.

Sen. Salazar’s two specific reports added to the Ag Appropriations bill and retained in the conference report were:

A Bark (Pine) Beetle Study amendment which will require USDA to make combating pine and other bark beetle infestations a top priority. USDA will be required to present to Congress an action plan for combating bark beetle infestations and outline the necessary technical and financial resources to combat bark beetles and its plans to coordinate these efforts with state and local officials; and

A Rural Fuel Prices Study amendment which will require the USDA to report to Congress the effects of the current near-record gas, natural gas and diesel prices on farmers, ranchers and rural communities

Also included in the conference report were a number of specific appropriations requests by Senator Salazar, including:

More than $2M for Colorado State University for agriculture research programs, increased from $1.9M in the original bill as passed by the Senate:

  • $817K for Infectious Disease research, the backbone of the first-of-its-kind Animal Population Health Institute at CSU focusing on diseases such as Foot and Mouth, West Nile Virus, BSE, scrapie and Chronic Wasting Disease;
  • $306K for research into Russian Wheat Aphid resistance to help improve the sustainability and development of wheat varieties. Colorado’s wheat crop is estimated at more than a quarter of a billion dollars per year; and
  • $880K for the National Beef Cattle Genetic Evaluation Consortium, an internationally recognized consortium of scientists from Colorado State, Cornell and the University of Georgia that collects, interprets and distributes data to beef cattle breeders across Colorado and the nation so they can producer high quality, affordable beef for U.S. consumers and international markets.
  • $25.6M for Resource Conservation and Development Councils across the nation, bringing the program funding total to more than $51M. Colorado has 77 Resource Conservation and Development Councils. For example, last year the San Luis Valley RCDC received a rural development grant of $99,700 to assist a group of farmers in the Valley in cooling and transporting fresh produce to consumers;

The conference report for the FY06 Agriculture Appropriations bill (H.R. 2744) has now been passed by the Senate and was passed by the House last week by a vote of 318-63. It will go on to the President’s desk, where it is expected to be signed into law.

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