05/12/05 Ag Chairmen on budget cuts

05/12/05 Ag Chairmen on budget cuts

Farm and Ranch May 12 Now that the U.S. House and Senate have adopted a 2006 federal budget outline it is up to committees in the two chambers to determine how to trim three billion dollars in ag spending over the next five years. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Saxby Chambliss says that level of spending reduction is doable without disrupting farm programs. Chambliss: "We will find the savings and we'll find them in a way that will not disrupt anybody's day-to-day operation. It will not interrupt the Conservation Reserve Program. It will not the Food Stamp Program, but we will find a little bit of savings from each one of those areas and achieve the requested reconciliation amount." House Ag Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte won't tip his hand as to how the cuts may be made but does emphasize; Goodlatte: "Our number one priority is to not go in and change the way farm programs operate for farmers, particularly the commodity programs and so on, where a significant change could have a radical impact upon farmers' reliance upon these programs." But a ranking Democrat on the House Ag Committee, Ed Case of Hawaii isn't sure that's possible. Case: "I think that it is inescapable, that when the dust settles it is very difficult to envision a way of reconciling 3-billion dollars in cuts to American agriculture without reopening the Farm Bill." Case says when it comes to contributing to deficit reduction, agriculture has already paid at the pump. I'm Bob Hoff. That's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
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