2012 Farm Bill

After a year in which the Farm Bill process was subsumed by the congressional “supercommittee,”Farm Bill development is now moving along a more typical track. The Senate Ag Committee last week voted 16-5 to send its bill to the full Senate. The House is holding hearings in D.C. this week and is expected to write its version in the next few weeks. Whether a Farm Bill can get passed in an election year is a big question mark, but at least things are moving.

Below is a basic summary of some of what is in the Senate Ag Committee bill, with an emphasis on programs that were discussed at last year’s Summit for the Northern Forest and/or that have been a focus of regional Northern Forest advocacy in the past.

Selected Elements of the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2012, as passed by the Senate Agriculture Committee 4/26/12

Links to the other, more detailed summaries as well as the full bill are included below.

Conservation (Title II)

• Conservation Stewardship Program: Authorizes through 2017. Removes the 10 percent enrollment cap on nonindustrial private forestland acreage
• Environmental Quality Incentives Program & Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program: Consolidates WHIP with EQIP, with at least 5 percent of EQIP funds set aside for WHIP funding. Funded at: $1.5 billion for 2013, $1.6 billion for 2014, $1.65 billion for 2015-2017

Rural Development (Title VI)

• No Mandatory Funding- the committee bill does not include mandatory funding for rural development programs, meaning that they would be subject to annual appropriations. The 2008 bill included $150 million in mandatory funding for rural development programs.
• Definitions of Rural

             -Raises population eligibility requirement to 50,000 for Rural Community and Rural Business Programs.

             -Excludes urbanized areas contiguous or adjacent to city or towns larger than 50,000 from being defined as “rural.”

• RBEG/RBOG consolidation: Rural Business Opportunity Grants and Rural Business Enterprise Grants are combined in to a new program: Rural Business Development Grants
• Program reauthorizations: the bill reauthorizes numerous programs highlighted in past Northern Forest advocacy efforts including:

             -Rural Water Grant and Loan Programs

             -Revolving Funds for Financing Water and Wastewater Projects

             -Community Facilities Program

             -Intermediary Relending Program

• Strategic Economic and Community Development: Authorizes the Secretary to give priority to applications submitted for funds through Rural Development programs that support regional approaches to community and economic development.
• Rural Economic Area Partnership (REAP) Zones: Directs the Secretary to carry out REAP zones in effect on date of enactment of the bill (which covers the VT REAP zone) and establishes a competitive process for the Secretary to designate new Rural Economic Area Partnership zones

Forestry (Title VIII)

• State-Wide Assessment and Strategies for Forest Resources. Extends the program through 2017 at $10 million per year.
• Forest Stewardship Program: Authorizes $50 million annually in funding through 2017
• Forest Legacy Program: Authorizes $200 million annually in funding for 2013-2017 with allowances for additional federal funds available to the Secretary
• Community Forest and Open Space Conservation Program: Authorizes $50 million annually in funding for 2013-2017

Energy (Title IX)

• Rural Energy for American Program (REAP): Mandatory funding at $48.2 million a year from 2013 – 2017. Allows RC&D councils to be eligible for energy audit and technical assistance portion of the program
• Community Wood Energy Program: Reauthorizes at $5 million annually.

Miscellaneous (Title XII)

• Northern Border Regional Commission: Reauthorizes at $30 million annually through 2017. Eliminates cap on administrative expense if annual appropriations are less than $10 million.

Additional Resources

Sources for the information above and good places to get the full details on the bill include:

• Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act Section-by-Section (As passed by the Senate Ag Committee)
• Summary of Senate Agriculture Committee Managers Amendment(American Forest Foundation)
• Senate Ag Committee Farm Bill page

The Center’s policy director Joe Short spent several days in Washington, D.C. in mid-May visiting agency officials and Congressional delegation staff. He joined other rural advocates from the Coalition for Eastern Forests & Communities and the Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition in a broad range of meetings about the next Farm Bill, federal renewable energy policy, community forests and ecosystem services. Northern Forest delegation offices visited included Senators Shaheen, Snowe, Sanders, and Gillibrand and Representatives Michaud, Bass, Welch, and Owens.

From conversations during the week we learned that current work on the Farm Bill is on the Senate side, with the Senate Ag Committee beginning field hearings in May. The House has yet to begin significant work on the bill. Uncertainty was a consistent theme in Farm Bill conversations, whether it was on the exact timing of the bill or on how the fiscal climate will impact authorization and funding for rural development, forestry, and conservation programs that are important to the Northern Forest region. Yet there was an eagerness for Farm Bill policy ideas that are innovative, flexible, efficient, regional, and leveraged—all characteristics of the initial ideas that began to emerge from the recent Summit for the Northern Forest.
 

A regional public policy working group met at the May 4-5 Summit for the Northern Forest to outline draft priorities and a preliminary work plan to develop a Northern Forest Farm Bill platform. Action items from the session included:
• ‘Refresh’ the messaging of the Northern Forest Sustainable Economy Initiative recommendations as a basis for engaging state and federal elected officials to advance policies that support regionally-identified priorities.
• Refine Northern Forest priorities for regional advocacy in the coming year. The group will solicit input and share draft priorities with other Summit participants and other regional networks, and develop an outreach strategy for key officials to engage with the ideas.
• Conduct a regional sign-on campaign to convey continued community, business, and landowner support for the Sustainable Economy Initiative strategy
• Engage the region’s governors and congressional leaders to advance identified policy priorities for federal FY12, the Farm Bill, and other legislation.

Contact Joe Short or join Northern Forest Center policy email/RSS list for updates and to learn how you can get involved in developing priorities and in advocacy efforts.

A recent meeting of the Coalition for Eastern Forests and Communities brought together people working in the field of ecosystem services from across the eastern U.S. to discuss how the Farm Bill and other federal policies can create incentives for ecosystem services such as filtering water and carbon sequestration. Northern Forest Center Program & Policy Director Joe Short developed and facilitated the ecosystem services track at the meeting.

Al Todd from the USDA Office of Environmental Markets spoke to the group, which over the course of two days developed a preliminary set of ideas for policy in the Farm Bill related to ecosystem services.