Conservation Funds Slashed for Child Nutrition Bill

Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry unveiled March 17 the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, a bipartisan bill making the largest investment in federal child nutrition programs to date.

Lincoln’s bill provides $4.5 billion in new child nutrition program funding over ten years, a significant increase over previous efforts. The highest previous increase was $500 million over ten years.

Her Republican counterpart on the ag committee, Sen. Saxby Chambliss commended Lincoln for her leadership on the bill. However he noted although he worked closely with Lincoln constructing the bipartisan legislation, he still has concerns "with some of the offsets used to fund the measure" and looks forward to addressing those concerns before the markup next week.

According to a release from the Environmental Defense Fund, the child nutrition bill would cut more than $2 billion dollars from the largest of USDA’s working lands conservation programs, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).

As a result of EQIP's nationwide popularity, Congress increased funding for EQIP in the 2008 Farm Bill by $3.4 billion over 10 years. Lincoln’s proposed EQIP cuts would wipe out more than two-thirds of that increase.

House Agriculture Committee ranking member Rep. Frank Lucas echoed concerns of using EQIP funds to pay for the bill.

EQIP allows farmers to share with USDA the cost of implementing practices on working agricultural and forest lands that deliver a broad array of environmental benefits, including improved water quality, soil quality, air quality, forest health, and wildlife habitat.

EDF said farmer demand for the program routinely outstrips available funding; in the most recent year that USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) published EQIP enrollment numbers—Fiscal Year 2008—farmer demand for the program was so great that NRCS was forced to reject nearly half a billion dollars ($487 million) worth of applications by almost 24,000 farmers nationwide, about one third of all farmers who applied.

Lucas said, "The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) provides necessary assistance to our farmers and ranchers who must comply with a growing number of environmental regulations. The threat of the Obama administration placing greater hardships on our agricultural producers with excessive regulations only emphasizes the importance of EQIP."

He added this administration continues to pit programs that benefit our farmers against other programs and it’s to the detriment of American agriculture. We made a commitment to our farmers and ranchers in the 2008 farm bill and I intend to honor that commitment."

“Congress passed the 2008 Farm Bill with broad bipartisan support, and the investment it made in conservation was one reason for that broad support,” said Sara Hopper, director of agricultural policy for Environmental Defense Fund and a former staff member of the Senate Agriculture Committee. “We are disappointed to see Senator Lincoln propose cutting conservation funding so soon after taking over the chairmanship of the Agriculture Committee. We hope she and other members of the committee will consider alternative ways to pay for child nutrition legislation as this bill moves forward.”