House, Senate ag committees warn of future budget cuts and impact of commodity prices

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will face a 2011 fiscal budget of $3 billion less than its 2010 budget, and those cuts are "only the beginning," Michigan Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow, the chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, and Oklahoma Republican Rep. Frank Lucas, the head of the House Agriculture Committee, said to the National Farmers Union on Tuesday, the weekly Washington newsletter Agri-Pulse reports. Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell said the momentum from the 2011 budget deal could lead Congress and the president to sign significantly larger cuts for 2012.

Stabenow told NFU leaders that writing the 2012 farm bill presents "one heck of a challenge." "She's confident North Dakota Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad, the chair of the Senate Budget Committee, will tell her how much money needs to be cut from USDA spending and leave deciding the specifics up to her committee," Agri-Pulse reports. Lucas said he will not write a farm bill until next year because 16 members of the House Ag Committee are new and he wants to wait for commodity prices to stabilize. "We have to write a farm bill that reflects five years, not one unusual 12-month period," he said.

Lucas thinks the high commodity prices over the past 12-months has led urban lawmakers to push to cut the farm safety net, Agri-Pulse reports. Minnesota Democratic Rep. Collin Peterson, the ranking member of the House Ag Committee, said he will consider making cuts to agriculture spending if they are done fairly, but he doesn't think a 20 percent cut fair as long as defense spending is left alone. He said he was "not a big fan of raising taxes" but to cut the federal deficit, "we're going to have to raise more revenue." Agri-Pulse is subscription-only, but offers a free four-issue trial subscription.