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Screensize: 640 x 480 800 x 600 1024 x 768 1280 x 1024 UserName: Password: Format Mode: Basic  Help  Prompt  Format: Font Andale Mono Arial Arial Black Book Antiqua Century Gothic Comic Sans MS Courier New Georgia Impact Lucida Console Script MT Bold Stencil Tahoma Times New Roman Trebuchet MS Verdana   Size 1 2 3 4 5 6   Color Black Red Yellow Pink Green Orange Purple Blue Beige Brown Teal Navy Maroon LimeGreen Message: * HTML is OFF * Forum Code is ON Smilies [quote][i]Originally posted by Jen[/i] [br][b]Farm Bill Passes in the Senate[/b] After weeks of stalling over partisan disputes, the Senate took the Farm Bill to the floor in earnest last week and passed their bill on Friday with a vote of 79–14. The Senate Bill includes some real improvements in the provisions that support food security and local agriculture. Good Work!! Your calls, visits and emails to Senate offices have really made a difference. Your help will be needed as the House and Senate bills move towards a compromise in conference committee – stay tuned! [b]Successes [/b] Your voices! This Farm Bill has had incredible public input and major media attention. As a result, many of your legislators voted the way that you, their constituents, asked them to because they knew you were paying attention. YOU made a difference in this bill, and that is a huge success. Community Food Projects: The Senate’s bill would increase CFP funding to $10 million in mandatory annual funding, doubling the program’s previous $5 million. When the House-Senate conference committee meets to compromise the two bills, it’s important that the Senate’s funding hold up against the House version, which does not give CFP mandatory funds. Geographic Preference Language: Both the House and Senate bills include language clarifications that enable and encourage schools to look for local food first when they order meals through the USDA. Healthy Food Enterprise Development (HFED): The Senate bill sets aside $7 million over 5 years for an HFED center, which would provide advice and assistance to support aggregation, processing and marketing of local produce in underserved communities. The bill also includes a provision within the Business & Industry Loan Program, adding a priority for local food systems and increased access to healthy foods. The Food Stamp Program and TEFAP (Emergency Feeding Programs): The Senate bill increases both Food Stamp and TEFAP funding and makes the monthly benefit adjustable to inflation. It also lifts a former cap on the child care deduction, and raises food stamp household asset limits. Some of these changes include increasing and then indexing the Food Stamp Program $10 minimum monthly benefit and standard deductions for households of three or fewer; lifting the cap on the child care deduction; raising food stamp household asset limits (from $2,000 to $3,500 and from $3,000 to $4,500) and then indexing them; and boosting TEFAP commodities purchases. (FRAC, Dec. 14) Livestock Competition Title: The Senate Agriculture Committee included a strong Competition Title in their Farm Bill draft, and their competition provisions held without being struck on the Senate floor. The bill helps smaller livestock producers compete by banning packer ownership of livestock, in addition to other measures that limit corporate exploitation and empower small producers. Opponents to fair competition are expected to fight these provisions when the Senate and House bills are compromised in conference committee. For more information, see Sustainable Agriculture Coalition’s Weekly Update, available on their website. Gains in Research Funding: Several important research provisions were accepted by Senate leadership and added to the Senate bill as part of the Manager's amendment. These include the Feingold (D-WI) Organic Research amendment, which allocates funding from USDA’s Agricultural Research Service budget to research on organic agriculture, and the Menendez (D-NJ) Local Foods Study amendment, which funds a study on the potential growth of local food in the marketplace, and the benefits of advancing local food systems. For more information, see Sustainable Agriculture Coalition’s Weekly Update, available on their website. [b]Disappointments[/b] Dorgan-Grassley Amendment Fails On Thursday, the entire Senate voted on the Dorgan-Grassley payment limitations amendment, which would have placed a $250K hard limit on the payments that farms are eligible to receive in a year while closing many of the existing loopholes. Under usual procedural rules, an amendment must gain a majority of votes to pass. However, because senate leadership was faced with the threat of a filibuster from own of their own, Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), it was agreed to that reform amendments would need a 'supermajority' of 60 votes in order to pass. So, while Dorgan-Grassley did get a majority of support, it came just short of what was needed to pass (56 yes - 43 no). There were also some senators who vote for the same reform in the past, but voted against it this time. Check out how your senator voted here and click below to see how other organizations reacted: Center for Rural Affairs Sustainable Agriculture Coalition Environmental Working Group Oxfam America Bread for the World Other Reforms Also Come Up Short There were also a number of other reform amendments worth mentioning that were voted on, though none got the 60 votes needed to pass. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) sought to reduce the income level at which farmers become ineligible to receive payments from $2.5 million to $750K, but failed with a 48-47 vote. Senators Brown (D-OH) and Sununu (R-NH) sponsored an amendment to ban excessive fees paid to crop insurance companies, but that also failed with a vote of 32-63. The Lugar-Lautenberg amendment, which would have phased out the commodity programs altogether, failed to pass with a vote of 37-58. Lastly, Senators Tester (D-MT), Harkin (D-IA), and Grassley (R-IA) sponsored an amendment to the Livestock Title that would have made it more difficult for large packer companies to legitimate unfair practices. This amendment failed 40-55. [b] Looking Forward[/b] Now that both the House and Senate have passed a Farm Bill, the 2 bills must come together by way of a conference committee. The committee will have legislators from both sides of the aisle and both houses of Congress. Between now and the beginning of 2008, we expect that staff in the House and Senate will be working to combine the 2 Farm bills and come up with a compromise. During this time, CFSC will be checking in with legislators to remind them of our priorities. We encourage you to do the same! From the Community Food Security Coalition 110 Maryland Ave. NE Suite 307 Washington, DC 20002 Phone: 202.543.8602 www.FoodSecurity.org Jen [green]Farmgirl Sisterhood Member #9[/green] The View From My Boots: www.bovesboots.blogspot.com [/quote]   Check here to include your profile signature. Check here to subscribe to this topic.