Bruce F. Vento: “I rise to support the Boehlert amendment which represents the only opportunity on this farm legislation to address the…”

“I rise to support the Boehlert amendment which represents the only opportunity on this farm legislation to address the Conservation Reserve Program [CRP] and the Wetlands Reserve Program [WRP]. Under the rules of the House we should have had a more open debate and an opportunity for the House to work its will on these important provisions--but were denied that by the closed rule adopted for the consideration of this measure, H.R. 2854. I am frankly very concerned about the Livestock Environmental Assistance Program embodied in the amendment, not because we do not need to clean up the feedlot seepage and pollution, but because the funding duty to do so will be transferred to the Federal Government in the absence of compliance. Such clean up and pollution prevention should be borne by those responsible for the contamination, the producers in agribusiness. Furthermore, the limitations on the acreage included in the CRP and the WRP proposal will sharply limit their effectiveness. I am hopeful that there is not an implication in the purchase of easements, a concept, that the Federal Government must pay land owners so that they will not pollute or damage the environment. Hopefully when and if this overall measure moves to conference, we will see these shortcomings corrected. But this amendment, which will no doubt pass today, is a mixed message and not the best product for a sound conservation policy path in 1996.”