<b>By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER<br>
Ohio Correspondent</b> </p><p>

DUBLIN, Ohio — Congress has come up with a $150 billion economic stimulus package, yet Katy Ziegler, National Farmers Union (NFU) vice president of government affairs, told Ohio Farmers Union (OFU) members at their annual meeting that she believes the farm bill waiting to be enacted is the best economic stimulus package for rural America.<br>
 “I have on my desk both farm bills – the farm bill passed by the House of Representatives in July, and the farm bill passed by the U.S. Senate in September. Out of both of those pieces of legislation, there are many provisions that came straight from the NFU policy book,” Ziegler said.<br>
On March 15, when the current farm bill expires, the Congressional Budget Office is going to release a new budget. Economists familiar with agricultural policy are saying the farm bill will face approximately a $10 billion reduction in the baseline, Ziegler said.
“We already had 60 percent less money to write the ‘07-’08 farm bill than we had in ‘01 and ‘02,” she said. “Now they’re talking about an additional $10 billion loss.”<br>
There are suggestions to extend the 2002 farm bill, Ziegler said. But while policy can be extended, the budget cannot – there would be a reduction in the money spent. The NFU board of directors has directed its staff to advocate for allowing permanent law (the nonexpiring provisions of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 to go into effect) if there is no new farm bill by March 15, Ziegler said.
“We hope the leverage of permanent law is going to get people from the House and Senate to compromise and, most importantly, people at the White House and USDA, who are claiming that it doesn’t matter what Congress sends them, they are going to veto it because it doesn’t meet their policy objectives and it doesn’t meet their budget priorities,” she said.<br>
One of the biggest victories in this farm bill, authorized in the House package and authorized and funded in the Senate package, is the establishment of a permanent disaster program, Ziegler said.<br>
“Farmers Union has led the charge year after year after disasters hit every part of this country,” Ziegler said. “One of the things that farmers can’t do is control the weather; when disaster strikes, the inadequacy of the current safety net and current risk management programs require us to go to Congress to say we need a helping hand to get us to the next year.”<br>
 There are fewer rural members of Congress and more urban members, who may not understand the challenges that producers face and may be unwilling to spend money to ensure getting them through another year.<br>
The second major accomplishment, which is in the Senate-passed bill, is a livestock competition title, Ziegler said.<br>
“One of the biggest challenges we face as producers is the lack of a competitive market,” she said. “We cannot compete in a marketplace that is stacked against us.”<br>
The provisions include a ban on packer ownership of livestock so packers can’t control and own their own livestock, and allowing interstate shipments of state-inspected meats.<br>
Ziegler encouraged OFU members to urge their legislators to call the White House and come to the table with reasonable expectations to finish this farm bill.<br>