note from Erin: you might remember receiving an action alert in the mail 
about this during the fall of 2001, asking you to support Senator Harkin's 
attempt to pay farmers to produce environmental benefits. 

Erin E. Jordahl
Director, Iowa Chapter Sierra Club
3839 Merle Hay Road, Suite 280
Des Moines, IA 50310
515-277-8868
[log in to unmask]
<A HREF="www.iowa.sierraclub.org">www.iowa.sierraclub.org</A>

FY 03 OMNIBUS CUTS $4 BILLION FROM CONSERVATION TITLE OF FARM BILL TO OFFSET 
DISASTER PACKAGE

Oppose Effort to Rob Mandatory Conservation Funds

Funding for the Conservation Security Program, a key farm bill conservation 
program, is cut by $4 billion in the final deal on the agriculture disaster 
portion of the omnibus.  The CSP would be reduced from a CBO score of $7.77 
billion to $3.77 billion.  Of that total, $3.1 billion would be used to 
offset the increased commodity program payments and other disaster aid, and 
an additional $900 million would be cut to pay for conservation technical 
assistance and other elements of the overall omnibus package.

"It is outrageous to re-open the farm bill conservation title to solve the 
standoff over the disaster bill," said Ferd Hoefner, Washington 
Representative for the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.  "We urge Congress 
to reject this proposal."

The Congressional Budget Office has just recently rescored the CSP program at 
$7.77 billion over 10 years, up from its $2 billion 10-year score for CSP 
last year - presumably a reflection of how enthusiastic farmers and ranchers 
have been about the new program to help them solve natural resource and 
environmental problems.

"Cutting mandatory farm bill conservation programs to pay for natural 
disasters sets a terrible precedent," continued Hoefner. "It is more than a 
little ironic that conservation programs, the only farm programs that 
actually help mitigate the impact of drought, floods and other natural 
disasters, would be cut to pay for disaster payments.  This will only help 
ensure a continuing need for disaster payments in years to come."

"Counting cuts from years down the road in a mandatory conservation program 
to offset today's disaster package - which actually compensates for disasters 
from years gone by - is truly breaking new ground in budget chicanery.  More 
importantly, changing the farm bill in the flash of an eye as part of a 
thousand-plus page funding bill is unfair to the farmers and ranchers and 
conservationists who fought and negotiated for two long years to enact this 
new, innovative, forward-looking program."

If the proposed cut and the overall bill do in fact get approved and signed 
into law, the CSP program would remain in place as a new conservation 
entitlement program.  All interested farmers and ranchers with qualified and 
approved conservation plans would be able to participate.  However, once 
total obligations reached $3.77 billion --
the artificial cap proposed by the new language in the omnibus bill -- 
enrollment of additional participants would be halted, unless Congress 
authorizes additional funding at that point.  

The Conservation Security Program is a comprehensive stewardship incentives 
program that provides financial and technical assistance to farmers and 
ranchers to reward them for creating public benefits such as
clean water, clean air, wildlife habitat, carbon sequestration, rangeland 
improvement, and wetland restoration and enhancements.


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