Reacting to speculation that a continuing resolution to fund the government for the remainder of fiscal year 2011 could include cuts to farm bill subsidies, Senate Agriculture Chairman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said today that budget decisions regarding agriculture should not be made until after the 2012 farm bill is written.

“Decisions concerning the agriculture budget must be evaluated and made through the farm bill reauthorization process,” Stabenow wrote in an email to The Hagstrom Report.

“Agriculture has already contributed $4 billion to shrink the deficit through cuts in crop insurance, and the farm bill budget is already smaller, due in part to high commodity prices,” Stabenow said. “We will continue to hold programs accountable and cut what doesn’t work to reduce the deficit. Everything is on the table – and should be – but it is essential that decisions about our rural economy and food policy be done in a comprehensive way through the reauthorization of the farm bill.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said earlier this week that fiscal 2011 budget talks could be expanded to include oil subsidies and farm programs, although he did not provide any specifics about farm cuts.

House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, also said last week that he would consider ending ethanol and farm subsidies

Farm bill critics have also suggested that the farm program be cut in a period of high prices.