Audio provided courtesy of Ron Hays with the Oklahoma Farm Report.
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House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas has said for months that, if an agreement is made to address the national deficit, there have to be savings elsewhere to make those adjustments. He says agriculture, with cuts totaling $35 billion in the House Committee?s version of the farm bill, is ready to do its part. Lucas also says his goal is still completing a new five-year farm bill during the lame duck session, but he admits the fiscal cliff scenario now is the chief Congressional priority.
While House Ag Ranking Member Collin Peterson has expressed his preference for rewriting permanent law instead of extending the 2008 bill, Lucas says as the Chairman, he has to do the responsible thing.
As a farmer, Lucas understands wanting a new farm bill right away – but he says there is a transition period that has to happen. Without consulting a crystal ball, Lucas says there are two possible scenarios where everything could work out.
The first scenario is a complete farm bill dropped into the grand package. The second, less-desirable scenario is a bill that spells out what cuts have to be achieved by different parts of the government, including the farm bill, with a budget reconciliation date and an expedited procedure to pass the bill.
But no matter what, Lucas says something must be done; there must be a process in place, he says, for Congress to complete its work on the farm bill and get billions of dollars in savings.
