| Washington, D.C.— Congressman Steve King today, along with fellow Agriculture Committee members, introduced legislation that would extend the current Farm Bill by one year.
"Iowa farmers are the best in the world and deserve to be treated right. They do not ask for special treatment, they just ask not to be used as pawns in political games. Our one year extension will give Iowa farmers the opportunity to plan for Spring planting,"
The Farm Bill is a comprehensive piece of federal law that is reauthorized every five years and contains the United States farm, conservation and nutrition policy. The current Farm Bill ended on September 30, 2007, and Congress previously passed an extension to December 31, 2007. The legislation proposed by Congressman King and his colleagues would allow the current Farm Bill to function until September 30, 2008.
"Congress has been working on the 2007 Farm Bill for two years. The House passed its version in July and we’ve been waiting on the Senate, which can’t even come to an agreement about which amendments to consider,"
King added. "The 2007 crop has been harvested, and farmers are already thinking about what they will plant in 2008. Fall tillage and fertilizer application is starting and farmers must not be hamstrung by undefined rules they will be expected to follow when they move forward with spring planting decisions."
If a Farm Bill rewrite is not passed this year and no extension the current Farm Bill is passed by January 1, 2008, then federal agriculture law will revert back to the Agriculture Act of 1949. Such an event would create a gapping hole in our national farm policy. The Act of 1949 does not contain the conservation or nutrition provisions contained in today’s agricultural law. Also the 1949 law’s commodity programs are entirely foreign to today’s farmers and anyone else involved in modern agriculture.
Congressman Steve King (R-IA) serves on the House Agriculture and Small Business Committees, and he is the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee’s Immigration panel.
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