By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent
 
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. House Agriculture Committee agreed earlier this month on its “budget views and estimates letter,” a statement that provides guidance on the committee’s current priorities for the House Budget Committee.

“The letter reflects the views of all the members of the committee,” said an aide on the ag committee, who is familiar with the letter.
According to the aide, all committees in Congress must submit such a letter to the budget committee each year to provide guidance and each committee’s recommendations. According to the aide, the last couple of years “were looking ahead to get the farm bill passed.”
According to the most recent letter, approved March 12, “the current economic crisis is making benefits provided by the FCEA (farm bill) increasingly essential to many families’ existence.

“The number of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP – formerly the Food Stamp Program) recipients just hit a record high of 31.8 million in December, 2008 … Producers in both the crop and livestock sectors have seen prices decline dramatically from last summer’s record high levels.

“In many cases, production costs that also hit record high levels last summer have not declined as much as prices – setting up a classic cost-price squeeze,” it states.

Zack Pohl, press secretary for Rep. Mark Schauer (D-Mich.), the only member of the ag committee from Michigan, said, “Congressman Schauer supports the agenda outlined this week by Chairman (Collin) Peterson and Republican ranking member (Frank) Lucas for the agriculture committee, which includes implementing the five-year farm bill enacted last year and beginning hearings in preparation for drafting the next farm bill.
“The committee will also soon begin hearings on eliminating waste, fraud and abuse in programs under its jurisdiction, which the Congressman believes will help identify needed remedies to ensure that agricultural programs are operating efficiently and effectively.”
The letter, echoing Pohl’s comments, rejects calls to change benefits that are included in the current farm bill, given that hearings on the next farm bill are not too far off.

“The 2012 bill will be here sooner than many realize,” the letter states. “Changes in program benefits can – and should – wait until then.”

The letter also states that fraud in commodity programs and crop insurance has been reduced by a requirement that producers’ information be cross-checked between the Farm Service Agency’s (FSA) commodity programs and the Risk Management Agency’s crop insurance programs.

The letter goes on to say the FSA’s computer system must be modernized, describing it as “one of the oldest technology infrastructures within the Department of Agriculture (and, arguably, some of the oldest in the federal government).”

It also states that fraud in the SNAP program has been reduced through implementation of electronic benefit transfer cards, replacing the old paper stamps.