Agriculture Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services Michael Scuse discusses implementation of the 2014 farm bill Thursday before the House Agriculture Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management. (From House video)

By ALEX GANGITANO
and JERRY HAGSTROM

Agriculture Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services Michael Scuse came under questioning Thursday over updating farmers’ Actual Production History records known as APH, but afterwards members commended him for implementation of the commodity program and crop insurance provisions of the bill.

The House Agriculture Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management held a hearing Thursday to discuss the commodity and crop insurance titles of the 2014 farm bill.

Rep. Michael Conaway, R-Texas
“I am deeply troubled over the department’s handling of two very important but very different issues,” said Rep. Michael Conaway, R-Texas, chairman of the subcommittee.

“The first is the APH adjustment, which would provide critical relief for those struggling against severe drought,” Conaway said. “The second is the rollout of conservation compliance which I fear could undermine crop insurance and our overall conservation goals if the approach is overly punitive.”

Conaway began with questioning why producers will not be able to utilize these new adjustments until 2015.

“If you look at everything that the Risk Management Agency is going to be rolling out for 2015 and the resources that it takes for RMA to roll out those programs, it is no small task,” Scuse said. “The APH was not in any of those previous forms of legislation and it was a last-minute addition to the farm bill.”

The APH provision was included in both the House and Senate farm bills, but modified in the conference report to save money and to provide more targeted assistance to producers who had suffered from disasters in recent years, a House Agriculture Committee aide said.

House Agriculture Committee ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minn., told Scuse he is worried that USDA will wait until it has the new dairy program finished this fall before communicating any information about it to farmers, and Scuse said he would take this under consideration.

Peterson also voiced concern that there will be low enrollment in the dairy insurance program because prices are good right now.

“People are going to say well, what the heck, I don’t need insurance,” he said.

Scuse responded that education and outreach would be taken very seriously.

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, R-N.Y., asked about cases of fraud in the crop insurance program.

“We are going to look at using some of that additional funding to hire some additional staff, so that we can have any abuse of the system cut to the bare minimum,” Scuse said.

Scuse also presented a timetable of USDA’s implementation of programs. (See link)

In a news release issued after the hearing, Conaway said he commended initial efforts to implement the farm bill, but challenged USDA “to fully deliver on the promises made to our farmers and ranchers in the law.”

“Specifically, USDA must make it a priority to implement the Actual Production History adjustment because it provides critical relief for producers who have struggled with severe and devastating drought conditions for the past four years,” Conaway said.

“Producers suffering from a drought shouldn't have to wait until the third year of a five-year farm bill to receive relief, particularly when Congress intended for it to be available immediately,” he said.

“Undersecretary Scuse told us today he is committed to exploring partial implementation of this provision and will provide the committee with details about potential timelines. That is encouraging and I look forward to hearing those details.”

▪ Statement by Undersecretary Scuse Before the House Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management