Executive Director Reports
With the Blinding Light of a Small Flashlight and a Roaring Whisper, the Congressional Super Committee Goes Home for Thanksgiving
The Prediction is: Eating Turkey will be Much Easier than Talking Turkey
Well, to no one’s real surprise, the 12 members of the Congressional Super Committee could not get their arms around the charge of coming up with $1.2 trillion in savings over the next 10 years for the Federal Budget. As you recall, this was the assignment that resulted from the agreement on raising
the National Debt Limit back in the summer. They were to find these savings which would be added to the $900 billion in savings enacted at that time. If they failed to complete the task, the agreement was that there would be automatic cuts totaling the $1.2 trillion starting at the beginning of 2013 and half would come from Defense programs and half from Domestic programs.
Our conservation interest in this was how the cuts impacted Conservation Title programs and how big a possible decrease in spending for technical staff at USDA/NRCS could be. Well, the news is good and bad; and bad and good. Good in that there will not be immediate cuts in conservation or other programs because Congress does not have anything to pass by Christmas. (Outside the cuts in the appropriations bill that I will discuss a little later) Bad in that if automatic cuts happen next year, they could be rather draconian without much policy discussion. Bad again in that by just kicking the can father down the road the eventual cuts will be larger because the fiscal problem continues to grow. But, good again in that we will now have the opportunity to have a more open discussion of the next farm bill instead of the one Congressional Ag staff presented to the Super Committee but no one much has seen yet. Even though some elements of NACD Farm Bill Principals were being given strong consideration, I was very concerned that legislation as large as a farm bill, put together in a very short time and without industry and ag/conservation group participation could easily miss the mark needed by modern day ag production and be a nightmare for the Department to implement. I could go on for several pages with this good/bad deal but I too plan on having a Thanksgiving Holiday so I won’t bore you any longer. I do think the uncertainty on the country’s fiscal problems will make continued growth difficult and, with everything next year being even more clearly centered on elections, the success of coming up with agriculture and conservation policy to be implemented on October 1, 2012, (when the current Farm Bill expires) will be even more difficult.
I mentioned appropriations and Congress did pass, and the President signed, a bill that covered Agriculture, Commerce/Justice/Science, and Transportation/Housing and Urban Development. It was called a Mini-bus as opposed to an Omnibus we usually hear about. That appropriations bill also included a Continuing Resolution that funds other parts of the Government, for which appropriation bills have not been passed, until December 16th. The appropriations for Agriculture did not cut NRCS as bad as proposed by the Senate but the cut is still around $50 million to Conservation Operation and other accounts. Unfortunately, the Resource Conservation and Development Program and the Small Watershed Program did not receive funding as some had hoped and remain as unfunded authorities within the Department. The Dam Rehab program did receive a modest $15 million. It is unclear if any mandatory conservation programs were limited by the bill but even if they were not, this is the first real cut in the NRCS appropriations in some years. These cuts, along with pay costs and inflation and the loss of the aforementioned programs, will have a noticeable impact. But, the Super Committee’s failure may ease some of this impact until other agreements are made over the next couple years.
I just wanted to give you a short rundown on what was happening with the Super Committee announcement that no agreement could be reached. It is good we only have to deal with limited impacts right now, but bad that this budget discussion will only increase the noise as we head into the Iowa Caucuses in January. (We need more reruns of MASH and Andy Griffith)
Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!
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