Dusty Johnson: “This amendment will provide permanency of farm aid for this crop year and will increase the budget for the next 10 years…”

“This amendment will provide permanency of farm aid for this crop year and will increase the budget for the next 10 years so that Congress can begin to fashion a new farm bill. This amendment includes $9 billion in emergency farm assistance for fiscal year 2001 and $88 billion in additional agricultural assistance above the Congressional Budget Office baseline over the years 2002 to 2011, including a minimum of $9.4 billion for farm conservation programs. This is roughly a 50-percent increase over the baseline funding for conservation. Finally, of the $88 billion in additional funds provided to agriculture during fiscal years 2002 through 2011, $58 billion is provided for the fiscal years 2003 through 2007, assumed to be the first 5 years of the new farm bill and also the period when the need for additional assistance, frankly, will be greatest. We have found an immense shortcoming in the existing farm legislation, and we have augmented that funding in recent years --3 years in a row now--with ad hoc disaster legislation.”