Washington, D.C. – U.S. Representative Charles W. Boustany, Jr. (R-Lafayette), a member of the House Agriculture Committee, today voted against the partisan Farm Bill (H.R. 2419) to prevent a tax hike on farmers and businesses across Southwest Louisiana and a massive increase in federal entitlement programs.

“I worked hard over many months in a bi-partisan manner on the Agriculture Committee to produce an effective piece of legislation for Southwestern Louisiana farmers, but the House Democratic leadership hijacked this bill at the last minute,” said Boustany.

During consideration of the Farm Bill by the Agriculture Committee, Boustany succeeded in writing a stable, fair and equitable loan rate for long grain and short/medium grain rice.  In addition, he secured a flexible no-cost sugar program, that will maintain a strong domestic production, while preparing for a potential influx of imported sugar from Mexico in early 2008.

The bi-partisan supported Farm Bill was defeated with a vote of 198-223.  The version approved by the House included the last-minute plan to raise taxes by an estimated $7 billion in order to pay for increases in programs that do not directly benefit our farmers or our ranchers.  The tax portion of the bill was never debated in an open and fair process by any committee, and no member of the House of Representatives was allowed to offer an amendment to the tax provision.

“The Farm Bill that passed the Agriculture Committee and the bill the full House voted on are two different pieces of legislation.”  Boustany continued, “The Committee’s Farm Bill supported our hard-working farmers, but the bill with the last-minute tax hikes will hurt farmers and Southwest Louisiana families much more than it will help them.”

Boustany’s work in the Committee and on the House floor for Southwest Louisiana farmers and incorporated in the bi-partisan Farm Bill include:


•    Correcting a problem made by the Risk Management Agency, to allow sweet potato farmers the ability to apply for 2005/2006 crop disaster payments by using FSA yield production data

•    Standardizing the loan rate for long grain rice, as well as medium/short grain rice, in order to provide more stability to rice producers

•    Preserving the no-cost sugar program, while creating a new market balancing mechanism that will help protect domestic producers against an influx of foreign sugar

•    Making the cotton program more trade compliant, while maintaining an adequate safety net for domestic producers

Speaking on the House floor, Boustany continued, “The farmers of Southwest Louisiana are trying to recover from Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, but this bill slows their recovery and hurts them in the end.”

Congressman Boustany met with farmers across the Seventh District in the months preceding the Farm Bill, hosting a bi-partisan Farm Day in Crowley with Under Secretary of Agriculture Mark Keenum.  In addition, Boustany conducted a tele-town hall with Southwest Louisiana farmers and families involved in the agricultural sector to better understand their needs and concerns.

“I will continue to fight for Southwest Louisiana farmers and ranchers throughout this ongoing process,” Boustany said.  “The Farm Bill became less and less about farmers, but I am going to work to change that.”