FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 12, 2007

Goodlatte: Farm Bill Fix Should Go Beyond the Beltway
Farmers and ranchers need stability, not promises of things to come

WASHINGTON – Ranking Republican Bob Goodlatte issued the following statement this afternoon regarding Chairman Peterson’s announcement of a three-month, partial farm bill extension:

“Throughout rural America, the absence of a farm bill is preventing farmers and ranchers from making planting decisions and finalizing agreements with their lenders and landlords. At this point, it seems they may be waiting indefinitely. Unfortunately, the only certainty producers have right now is uncertainty. While the House completed a farm bill in July, the Senate has yet to follow suit. We’ve waited and waited, watched the September 30th farm bill expiration come and go and still have not seen a Senate farm bill. A stalemate in the Senate should not come at the expense of our farmers and ranchers and I am not willing to leave our producers waiting and hoping for a new farm bill.

“We need a new farm bill and I have made no secret of my desire for a new forward-looking farm bill and I commend Chairman Peterson’s tenacity in getting the farm bill completed in the House. We cannot, however, ignore the needs of our farmers and ranchers in the here and now. While the three-month farm bill extension proposed by Chairman Peterson would preserve the current baseline, it fails to address the real impact of the farm bill void on farmers and ranchers. It does not give producers anything they can rely on or base decisions on and calling that a “fix” ignores the real problem. If we’re going to really try to fix the farm bill problem, we should do so in a way that goes beyond the beltway and will have some benefit for those actually making a living on our nation’s farms and ranches.

“A new farm bill would create stability and some level of certainty for producers; however, we do not have a new farm bill and there is no indication of when we will. In the meantime, I have voiced support for a one-year extension of the current farm bill. A one-year extension would be a temporary fix, but it would offer producers some degree of certainty, at least through the 2008 crop year. We have the opportunity and an obligation to do something to remedy this situation until a farm bill can be worked out and we should act quickly to do so.”

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