Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack recently used a visit to Arkansas to stump for the 2013 Farm Bill, urging Congress to immediately pass a new bill and give farmers the stability and certainty they need heading into a new season.
For two years, the farm bill has been stalled in Congress. While both the House and the Senate agree that cuts to farm subsidies (particularly the direct payment subsidy) and nutritional programs are needed, they disagree on the amounts. House food stamp cuts, for example, would be nearly 10 times the proposed Senate cuts ($4 billion vs. nearly $40 billion).
With Senate Democrats and House Republicans unlikely to agree on nutritional subsidies, the farm bill has been stalled, another victim of Washington gridlock.
In his Arkansas trip, Vilsack urged congressional leaders to put aside their partisan differences to pass a new five-year farm bill.
“It is essential that this gets done and gets done now,” Vilsack told a group of farm advocates in Little Rock. “The challenges and difficulties and issues are tough, I realize, but at the end of the day, we’ve gone on long enough without certainty. I don’t care who gets the credit for this. I just want a damn farm bill.”
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Written by: Justin Ellison / Farm Plus Staff Writer