Putting a Band-Aid on a Bullet Wound: The 2008 Farm Bill Extension
7 January 2013 
As part of a flurry of legislation to ward off the “fiscal cliff,” both parties on the House and Senate Agriculture Committees have come to an agreement on a nine-month extension of the 2008 Farm Bill, which originally expired on Sept. 30.
Frank Lucas, R-Okla., House Agriculture Chairman, looks with hope upon the extension, saying, “It is not perfect. No compromise ever is, but it is my sincere hope that it will pass the House and Senate and be signed by the president.”
The imperfections Lucas noted, however, have many ag industry professionals concerned. Jay Vroom, president and CEO of CropLife America explained the situation saying, “Agriculture is just one car in a 100 car train, and there was a train wreck on Jan. 1st. There are clearly corners of agriculture that will benefit from short-term continuations of the 2008 bill, but it is at a high cost.”
Although it looked like a $500 billion Farm Bill would be approved over the summer as the Senate passed a bill in June and the House Agriculture Committee approved a measure a month later, House GOP Speaker John Boehner backtracked, stating that the chamber did not have enough votes to pass either piece of legislation. Much to the disappointment of the ag community, progress on an updated bill didn’t resume until it was too late.
On the shortcomings of the renewed bill, Vroom said, “The government is grossly excessive in their spending habits, and the reality is that we need to cut down. Everyone thought that direct payments would be taken off the table to accommodate budget realities, but instead, we ended up with direct payments. With the reality of fiscal accountability, the hole was just made a lot deeper.”
Although USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack is on record as having pressured Congress and top House Republicans to get the bill passed due to the turmoil and uncertainty that failure to come to an agreement could cause, Beau Greenwood, executive vice president of government affairs and public relations at CropLife America, explained that the passing of the bill only created more chaos in the ag community.
“Usually it takes more than a year, maybe two years, to write an adequate bill,” Greenwood explained, “and farm economy, like our national economy, responds to stability. The passing of the Farm Bill created a short term stopgap that left a lot to be done.”
Check out the February issue of Farm Chemicals International for more information on the 2008 Farm Bill extension, including commentary from Monsanto and predictions for the revised legislation.
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