Ag approps expected back on House floor
June 16, 2011 | 10:28 AM | Filed in: Budget Food and Drug Administration House Ag Committee Subsidies
Floor action on the fiscal year 2012 House Agriculture appropriations bill is expected to resume today after a schedule break late Wednesday for the congressional White House picnic.
On Wednesday, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., successfully raised points of order against amendments that would have:
Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., offered an amendment Wednesday night to simply strip the $147 million for the Brazil cotton payment out of the bill, DTN reported. Kind argued that taxpayers shouldn't be paying off Brazilians to continue paying farm-program payments to U.S. cotton farmers. A vote on Kind's amendment, and several other pending amendments, are scheduled today.
Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, announced Wednesday he had filed an amendment that would prevent any funds appropriated under the act from being used to settle claims associated with the Pigford II law suit. Congress last year passed a bill to provide funds to settle the long-standing case, but King said the new Republican majority-House should not agree to the payments.
On Wednesday, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., successfully raised points of order against amendments that would have:
- Reduced payments to U.S. cotton growers to offset the cost of the Brazil Cotton Institute settlement in a World Trade Organization case, and shifted the Brazil cotton payment money to the special nutrition program for women, infants and children known as WIC;
- Lowered the eligibility level for farm subsidies from people with $750,000 in adjusted gross income to people with $250,000 in income;
- Required the Food and Drug Administration base all its decisions on “hard science.”
Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., offered an amendment Wednesday night to simply strip the $147 million for the Brazil cotton payment out of the bill, DTN reported. Kind argued that taxpayers shouldn't be paying off Brazilians to continue paying farm-program payments to U.S. cotton farmers. A vote on Kind's amendment, and several other pending amendments, are scheduled today.
Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, announced Wednesday he had filed an amendment that would prevent any funds appropriated under the act from being used to settle claims associated with the Pigford II law suit. Congress last year passed a bill to provide funds to settle the long-standing case, but King said the new Republican majority-House should not agree to the payments.
