Human Services Federal Issues

May 13, 2008

RE: Farm Bill Reauthorization, H.R. 2419

TO: US Senate and US House of Representatives Adobe PDF Download PDF Version

The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) urges you to vote for the conference agreement on H.R. 2419 and complete reauthorization of the Farm Bill. This legislation is vital to our nation’s farmers and rural citizens, and important to all U.S. consumers.

NCSL strongly supports the enhancements to the nutrition programs. The additional $10.361 billion in the House bill for nutrition programs is vital at a time when rising food prices are seriously affecting the ability of families to put meals on the table. The important changes contained in the conference agreement include: increasing and then indexing the Food Stamp Program minimum monthly benefit and the standard deductions for households of three or fewer members, lifting the cap on the child care deduction, raising food stamp household asset limits and indexing the limits for inflation, and boosting the Emergency Food Assistance Program commodity purchases. The additional funding will help stop the erosion of food stamp benefits, and increase the Emergency Food Assistance Program so that local food banks can restock their shelves.

Secondly, NCSL appreciates the inclusion of mandatory funding for rural development in this legislation for reducing the backlog of pending water and wastewater loan and grant applications, for a new rural development microenterprise assistance initiative, and for the Value Added Product Market Development Grant Program. Rural development programs are critical for the 86% of the nation’s rural population who are not employed in farming. The resources in the rural development title of the Farm Bill will help us to address immediate and widespread needs across the rural landscape and to make our communities better places for future generations. We understand the funding constraints negotiators faced in this agreement; however, we hope that the funding in this legislation represents a starting point for future discussions of this critical but underfunded title.

We applaud the bipartisan leadership demonstrated in Congress on this bill and urge your support for the conference agreement.

Sincerely,

Senator Steve Morris
President, Kansas Senate
Chair, NCSL Farm Bill Working Group