Implementing the New Farm Bill: Year Two
 

Remarks by Tom Weber, Associate Chief, Natural Resources Conservation Service, at the National Association of Conservation Districts Southeast Region Conservation Conference, Point Clear, AL

June 30, 2003

Thank you, Charles (Holmes). Good Morning, everyone. Thank you for inviting me to attend this year’s Southeast Region conference and talk about farm bill implementation.

Conservation districts are a vital part of the locally led approach to conservation. The strong working relationships you have developed with a wide range of agricultural interests in the public and private sectors alike are important to getting conservation done. These relationships allow farmers to reach their conservation goals the right way – through local decision making.
The new farm bill makes these relationships more important than ever!

There is a lot in the new farm bill to be excited about. It represents the single most significant commitment of resources toward conservation on private lands in the nation’s history – an $18-1/2 billion increase in conservation over ten years. The farm bill also changes the emphasis of conservation programs from idling environmentally sensitive land to promoting conservation on working lands.

Both in its size and its emphasis, the farm bill announces our entry into what Chief Knight calls “the next golden age of conservation.”


Farm Bill Implementation

Four activities have dominated our efforts over the last year or so to implement the farm bill: getting the word out; getting the money out – first for 2002, and now for 2003; writing the rules for farm bill programs; and implementing the Technical Service Provider process.

Getting the word out

Our first major task over the past year was getting the word out. NRCS and its partners, including the conservation districts across the nation, have done a great job of getting the word out on farm bill programs. We all did such a good job that today, we not only have enough applications to invest the 2003 farm bill money -- we are back in the position of having a backlog of applications.

We have also been making a concerted effort to make sure all farmers and ranchers -- including those in traditionally underserved communities – know about, and have access to, farm bill programs. As part of our outreach effort, USDA conducted a string of regional informational briefings around the country to reach more farmers and ranchers.

NRCS sponsored one of these briefings here in the Southeast, in Mississippi, last November. I want to express my thanks to all of you who helped make that meeting a success.

This year, we must particularly increase our efforts to get the word out, so we are sure we have reached the underserved groups in the producer community. Beyond getting the word out to all producers, we must also be open, fair, courteous, and responsive to everyone.

Last month, we held a Partnership Diversity Summit in Washington, DC, to bring together the leaders of several major partner organizations: NACD, NARC&DC, NASCA, and NCDEA, along with the presidents of most of the NRCS employee organizations. We had a productive session discussing that we all need to do to increase the diversity of our leadership structures and improve our service to traditionally underserved populations. We will meet again next month At the NARC&D national meeting – to review an action plan for reaching these goals.

Getting the money out

Our second major task has been getting the money out. Last summer, before the 2002 fiscal year ended, we released nearly $750 million for EQIP, WRP, WHIP, FPP, and Ground and Surface Water Conservation. This year, we picked up the pace a bit -- allocating this year’s money to the States on Earth Day – April 22. The total allocation for fiscal year 2003 was $1.8 billion.

This money was for both technical assistance and financial assistance. I know that almost everyone in the conservation community had been hoping that technical assistance would be fully funded without tapping into the farm bill programs. But it didn’t work out that way.

Technical assistance funds to operate the Wetlands Reserve Program and Conservation Reserve Program come from the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program, the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program, and the new Grassland Reserve Program. This has reduced the amount of financial assistance available through those four programs.

Writing the Rules

We have also been working hard to write the rules needed to implement the conservation provisions of the farm bill. The list of rules is getting long:

We have issued final rules for EQIP, WRP, WHIP, FRPP, Conservation of Private Grazing Land, and the Agricultural Management Assistance Program.

We have issued an interim final rule for the Technical Service Provider process. A new amendment to the Technical Service Provider rule came out late last week, making it easier for conservation districts and our other traditional partners in governmental units to provide technical assistance under agreements, rather than going through the certification process.

We issued a Notice of Availability of Funds for the Grassland Reserve Program a couple of weeks ago. The Department of Agriculture determined that responsibility for GRP will be shared by NRCS, FSA, and the Forest Service. NRCS has the responsibility for writing the rule for GRP, and we are working with the other agencies to get the job done.

We also issued an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for the Conservation Security Program. We are reviewing the comments on CSP, and we hope to have a proposed rule ready for release sometime next month. We are determined to create a program that works, so it may take some time to iron out the details.

Throughout the rulemaking process, we have been making the rules as simple as possible, making the process fully collaborative, and keeping as much decision making as possible at the local level, so that local people have as much control of the programs as possible.

Deputy Secretary Moseley refers to this approach as keeping things “lean and local.” In the case of EQIP, the rule is 1/3 less in volume, due to our lean and local effort.

But the most important work does not happen in Washington: local participation and local leadership is what conservation is all about. Because the conservation programs developed in Washington have only one purpose: to help local people reach their own conservation goals.


Implementing the Technical Service Provider Process

Our other major activity during the past year has been to design and implement the Technical Service Provider process. We are almost there.

The 2002 farm bill requires us to use the services of non-Federal Technical Service Providers in the business of making conservation work for America’s farmers and ranchers. But even if we did not have that requirement, we would still have to use Technical Service Providers, because the farm bill creates so much work.

The Technical Service Provider process gives us another way – a better way – a way that is consistent with keeping government small and keeping functions that are available commercially from becoming part of the Federal government.

This potential to keep commercial functions out of the Federal government makes the technical service provider process one of the key provisions of the 2002 farm bill.

The Technical Service Provider process should actually strengthen the partnership between NRCS and the districts, States, professional associations, Tribes, and others who will be providing the service.

What we are actually doing is using the Technical Service Provider process to build an industry of certified professionals to help us get conservation done.

We have earmarked $20 million nationwide for obtaining services from Technical Service Providers. That is a minimum. We hope states will use more outside services than that.

Technical service providers will be important because they will expand our capabilities well beyond what we can do ourselves. They will not replace NRCS employees. USDA employees will have plenty to do helping landowners, working with technical service providers, and making sure the resources get where they need to be. The emphasis, of course, is to make it possible for our partners to provide additional services, not to replace existing state-funded activities with Federal dollars.

We not only have a rule in place, but we also have memorandums of understanding in place to allow members of many professional organizations to be Technical Service providers. About 1500 potential Technical Service Providers have applied for certification through our TechReg site on the Internet. About half of them have completed the certification process.

We still have a lot of work to do, recruiting more Technical Service Providers, assisting them in getting IDs and passwords, helping them through the application process, pointing them to sources of training when their credentials fall a bit short, Setting and posting not-to-exceed rates in each state, working with producers to encourage them to use technical service providers, and getting contracts out so the work can begin.

Technical Service Providers are a good resource for producers and they will help the producers complete their contracts in a timely manner and


OUR STRATEGIC PLAN

We still have a lot to do to implement the farm bill over the next few years. In addition to reaching out to all produces, including underserved groups within the agriculture community, we must also make sure the applications we approve meet local and national priorities and invest the conservation dollar wisely to get the most conservation done.

Focusing On Conservation Goals

In setting and meeting priorities, we have to focus more on conservation goals and less on programs. We must get as much good, priority-based conservation done on the ground as we can.

We need to look at how applications relate to a producer’s overall conservation goals. And we need to look at how applications relate to national and local conservation priorities.

Getting More Conservation Done

We need to look carefully at applications in a number of ways to be sure we are getting the most for the taxpayer dollar. The same cost share may not be needed everywhere at all times.

We at NRCS must manage our resources frugally to maximize the dollars we can invest on the land. We need to look at other sources of funds to see how to leverage the Federal dollar. The Federal government and the producers can get more conservation done when the cost is shared several ways.


CONCLUSION

To summarize, let me say that we have made a strong start toward implementing the new farm bill, with its tremendous investment in conservation on working lands. But to be successful in the long run, we need to be more strategic.

We need to make sure every producer knows about the farm bill and has a chance to participate. We depend on the continued efforts of conservation districts to help get the word out.

We need to focus more on overall conservation goals and less on program implementation. I mentioned that NRCS needs to focus on accepting applications that meet local and national priorities. Conservation districts can help spread the word on these priorities.

And finally, we need to get the most conservation done that we can for the money. We need to use incentives properly, and we need to leverage the Federal funding. Conservation districts can help by developing new partnerships. The new farm bill gives us the resources to work with new and existing partners and the flexibility to take on new projects. The more partners we have, the more conservation we can do.

By working together to make the right choices, we can make this new farm bill live up to its potential. I look forward to working with all of you to make the next golden age of conservation a reality.

Thank you.