November 6, 2007

Dear Colleague:

In addition to reauthorizing a Farm Bill that builds a safety-net for farmers, we also need a bill that is fiscally responsible and operates within the context of the 10-year budget.

Unfortunately, the Senate Farm Bill manipulates the budget by “front-loading” spending in earlier years and shifting payments to later years as a way to claim pay-go within the 10-year window scored by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).  In an interview yesterday, Acting Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner asserted, “Shifting payments from one fiscal year to the next so those payments are outside the 10 years that the dollars are counted for budget purposes is simply and frankly dishonest.” The Statement of Administration Policy further describes, among other objections, the budget gimmicks used to make the Senate Farm Bill pay-go compliant, at least on paper.

One of the unfunded commitments in the Farm Bill is the nutrition title.  The bill appears to increase nutrition funding by over $5 billion.  However, a closer look at the Senate Farm Bill reveals that this funding actually sunsets after 5 years, at which point funding for nutrition drops dramatically in fiscal years 2013-2017.  In the CBO score, budget authority for the nutrition title is $1.4 billion in 2012, and drops to $32 million in 2013.

To the Food Stamp Program, this means that after five years of recipients benefiting from increases in asset limits, purchasing power, and funding for emergency food assistance, progress would be halted and the programs would be phased out.  In 2012, Congress would then be faced with having to manipulate the budget to find additional funding for these programs or vulnerable Americans would lose this much needed assistance.

The FRESH amendment that Senator Frank Lautenberg and I will introduce, along with a bipartisan group of Senators, provides critical funding for nutrition, energy, conservation, rural development and other important programs while paying for itself from the existing agricultural budget passed by Congress, and without employing deceptive budgetary maneuvers or the need for a supplemental Finance Committee package.  In fact, our bill will save taxpayers money.

Our amendment is fiscally responsible and provides a framework for growth for farmers and rural communities.  Furthermore, the long-term budgetary savings from our proposal will allow for us to make considerable investments in key priority areas.