Lucas sets farm bill schedule, notes EPA hearing
March 04, 2011 | 05:08 PM
TAMPA, Fla. — House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., laid out a schedule for the 2012 farm bill today and, assuring some of the nation’s biggest farmers that a new bill will be written, said he looks forward to an oversight hearing with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson next week.
“We’re gonna get us a new farm bill,” Lucas said at the end of a speech to the Commodity Classic, a gathering of 4,700 agriculture professionals, including 1,500 hundred of the nation's largest corn, soybean, wheat and sorghum producers. Lucas has said he plans to finish the bill in 2012.
Noting that the budget is the biggest factor in writing the next farm bill, Lucas said later this summer he will audit all existing farm programs to see if any are duplicative. He said that in the fall, he will conduct field hearings and then hold hearings in Washington.
Lucas also noted that 23 members — more than half — of the House Agriculture Committee and almost one quarter of the entire House are new to Congress and have no knowledge of the intricacies of writing a farm bill.
But Lucas said the biggest challenge agriculture faces is budget pressure.
“The best scenario is to keep what we have, but that is not possible,” he said, because there are 38 programs costing $7 billion to $9 billion that do not have a budget baseline after fiscal year 2012
On budget savings, Lucas said, “We will do our part, but only our part,” adding that the 2012 farm bill can be an opportunity “to fix programs and avoid duplication.”
Before the committee begins work on the farm bill, he said, it will hold a series of oversight hearings, including one scheduled Thursday with Jackson of the EPA.
“This will, I promise you, be the first of many visits [for Jackson] before the committee,” Lucas said. “I am not sure she will be excited about future visits with the committee."
Lucas said he would ask Jackson if the EPA is following law, if it is making regulatory decisions on sound science and data, and whether EPA officials are conducting cost benefit analysis.
Lucas said he does not want to prejudge Jackson’s answers, but that his common sense says she cannot defend agency decisions.
He maintained that Jackson is planning to regulate dust and also spilled milk, because it contains animal fat.
“EPA’s regulatory assault on American agriculture must stop,” Lucas said.
Jackson has testified before Congress that the EPA does not have a formal dust regulation proposal and has specifically exempted spilled milk from a proposal to regulate other spills.
“We’re gonna get us a new farm bill,” Lucas said at the end of a speech to the Commodity Classic, a gathering of 4,700 agriculture professionals, including 1,500 hundred of the nation's largest corn, soybean, wheat and sorghum producers. Lucas has said he plans to finish the bill in 2012.
Noting that the budget is the biggest factor in writing the next farm bill, Lucas said later this summer he will audit all existing farm programs to see if any are duplicative. He said that in the fall, he will conduct field hearings and then hold hearings in Washington.
Lucas also noted that 23 members — more than half — of the House Agriculture Committee and almost one quarter of the entire House are new to Congress and have no knowledge of the intricacies of writing a farm bill.
But Lucas said the biggest challenge agriculture faces is budget pressure.
“The best scenario is to keep what we have, but that is not possible,” he said, because there are 38 programs costing $7 billion to $9 billion that do not have a budget baseline after fiscal year 2012
On budget savings, Lucas said, “We will do our part, but only our part,” adding that the 2012 farm bill can be an opportunity “to fix programs and avoid duplication.”
Before the committee begins work on the farm bill, he said, it will hold a series of oversight hearings, including one scheduled Thursday with Jackson of the EPA.
“This will, I promise you, be the first of many visits [for Jackson] before the committee,” Lucas said. “I am not sure she will be excited about future visits with the committee."
Lucas said he would ask Jackson if the EPA is following law, if it is making regulatory decisions on sound science and data, and whether EPA officials are conducting cost benefit analysis.
Lucas said he does not want to prejudge Jackson’s answers, but that his common sense says she cannot defend agency decisions.
He maintained that Jackson is planning to regulate dust and also spilled milk, because it contains animal fat.
“EPA’s regulatory assault on American agriculture must stop,” Lucas said.
Jackson has testified before Congress that the EPA does not have a formal dust regulation proposal and has specifically exempted spilled milk from a proposal to regulate other spills.
