FSAs

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FSAs Implementation of the 2002 Farm Bill

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• I. Farm Bill Overview
• II. Implementation Process and Actions
• III. Implementation Timeline
• IV. Farm Bill Criticism Facts

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I. Farm Bill Overview
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Farm Bill Overview
The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of
2002 has been a long time in the making well
over two years, in fact, with numerous
Congressional hearings, exhaustive analysis, and
extensive debate.
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Farm Bill Overview
The new farm law is far reaching in its scope and
highly complex in its structure. Many changes
were made to existing programs and several new
programs were created.
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Farm Bill Overview
When President Bush signed the bill in May, he
noted it was not a perfect bill, but few of them
ever are. This is a law that makes significant
changes in farm program structure and funding,
and will bring much needed stability to our
farmers and ranchers as they conduct their
business.
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Farm Bill Overview
The goal of the bill is to bring economic
stability to our farmers and ranchers. It guides
the nations Ag policy for the next 6 years and
provides approximately 115 billion over ten
years. The new law...
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Farm Bill Overview
Adds new payment programs for dairy, honey,
wool, mohair, and pulses (dry peas, lentils and
chickpeas) Revises and rebalances the loan
rates for the marketing loan program for major
grains and oilseeds
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Farm Bill Overview
Continues direct payments based on historical
plantings and yieldsCreates a new system of
counter-cyclical payments based on market prices
in relation to target prices
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Farm Bill Overview
Makes significant changes to the peanut program
Includes a number of new provisions in the
Credit title to assist beginning farmers and
makes other administrative changes to existing
farm loan programs
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Farm Bill Overview
Expands conservation funding and adds new
programs to preserve wetlands and improve soil
and water quality on working farms. The
conservation program funding totals 22 billion
over 6 years.
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Farm Bill Overview
And, the new farm bill also contains new tools to
support the expansion of trade for our
agricultural products.
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Farm Bill Overview
These are the parts that relate to the farm and
conservation programs. In all, the law has ten
titles and affects virtually everything we do at
USDA like domestic food assistance, research,
rural development, marketing and regulatory,
energy and all the others.
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II. Implementation Process Actions
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Implementation

• A Sub-Cabinet Working Group, established by the
  Secretary and comprised of an array of USDA
  personnel, is working to set priorities,
  facilitate development of regulations, and obtain
  all required clearances expeditiously.

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Implementation

• FSA established a similar working group to handle
  these same activities at the Agency and program
  level. FSA, which is tasked with a very large
  proportion of the responsibility for
  implementation, has held sessions to strategize
  how best to proceed with the difficult and
  complicated task of implementing the new
  farm law.

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Implementation

• FSA recently announced the addition of
  approximately 1,000 temporary staff members to
  assist with implementation of the new law.
  These employees will be placed in county offices
  across the country where the workloads are
  heaviest.

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Implementation

• Secretary Veneman has officially announced the
  county loan rates. The official press release
  highlights the Administrations support of farm
  programs and policies that increase market
  orientation, reduce market distortions, and
  provide a farm safety net that does not drive
  producers decisions about what, where,
  and how much to produce.

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Implementation

• Notices and press releases have been issued
  relative to a number of issues such as LDPs that
  are available to producers on non-PFC farms.

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Implementation

• FSA issued a notice providing counties with
  general provisions of marketing assistance loans,
  LDP's, graze out, recourse loans on high moisture
  feed grains and related payment limitations.

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Implementation

• FSA has established teams for each Farm Bill
  regulation that include people from every office
  that will be involved in the development and
  clearance of the regulations. Teams are making
  policy decisions and drafting new and changing
  existing regulations.

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Implementation

• FSA officials continue to meet with farm,
  commodity, conservation, and environmental groups
  to brief them on the provisions of the
  Conservation Title of the 2002 Farm Bill and
  other programs.

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Implementation

• FSA is working with educational institutions to
  establish partnerships for disseminating
  information and developing educational tools for
  producers on the bills provisions.

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Implementation

• FSA has an entire section of its website
  dedicated to answering questions people may have
  about the Farm Bill. The site is updated
  frequently.

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Implementation

• County office employees are receiving
  information and training related to the new farm
  law.

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Implementation

• FSA is also...
• Developing new base/yield data.
• Educating and informing producers of all
  available options.
• At the end of May, a letter was sent to producers
  outlining provisions of the farm bill and
  informing them of information they will need to
  begin collecting to update their
  Service Center records.

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Implementation

• Developing informational materials (forms, fact
  sheets, press releases) for producers explaining
  what to expect and when.
• Evaluating progress and formulating solutions to
  evolving issues.

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Implementation

• Beginning e-Gov initiatives that allow producers
  to complete and submit some forms online.
  Example Electronically filed LDPs.
• Determining loan repayment rates for new program
  crops (peanuts, chick peas, lentils, etc.)

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III. Implementation Timeline
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Timeline

• FSA has been administering the last year of the
  FAIR Act while the new farm bill was being
  developed. The Agency has already provided some
  4 billion in direct payments to producers.

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Timeline

• The new law provides some additional direct
  payments for 2002, and these will be made in
  early fall using updated acreage bases. The new
  law also provides for a first installment of 2003
  direct payments in December 2002.

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Timeline

• And, the new law provides for the first advance
  counter- cyclical payments for 2002 in October
  and a second advance in February 2003. The final
  payment will be made at the end of the marketing
  year for each commodity, once the final season
  average price is known.

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Timeline

• The marketing loan program continues to operate
  largely as before, but with readjusted loan rates
  for most crops. The new loan rates are
  applicable immediately to the 2002 harvested
  crops, beginning with wheat now being harvested.

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IV. Farm Bill Criticism Facts

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Farm Bill Criticism Facts

• Since the bill was signed, critics have
  voiced their opinions regarding what is contained
  in the new law. Many of the claims are unjust
  and are distorting the facts.

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Farm Bill Criticism Facts

• First, some are saying that the new farm bill
  provides a 70 boost in farm program support over
  the 1996 bill and that support has ballooned
  out of control. Thats not the whole truth.
  People are comparing apples and oranges.

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Farm Bill Criticism Facts

• When examining the support we provide our farm
  sector, you have to add in the 30.5 billion in
  emergency supplemental support that has been
  provided during the last four years into those
  figures to be accurate.

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Farm Bill Criticism Facts

• Thats roughly an additional 7.5 billion each
  year for 1998, 99, 2000, and 2001.The new farm
  bill provides about 7.4 billion each year in new
  spending for farm programs.

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Farm Bill Criticism Facts

• The new farm bill continues with roughly the
  same amount of support that we have been
  providing our farm sector over the past four
  years through the 1996 farm bill and supplemental
  support.

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Farm Bill Criticism Facts

• Some in other countries are contending that this
  farm bill undermines our international trade
  obligations.

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Farm Bill Criticism Facts

• The WTO permits the United States to spend 19.1
  billion annually for certain types of farm
  program support. This compares to 31 billion
  for Japan and 62 billion for the EU. The EU can
  provide three times more than the US in allowable
  support.

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Farm Bill Criticism Facts

• Additionally, US markets are relatively open
  already compared with other countries. Our
  tariffs on agricultural products average about
  12. That is compared to a whopping 59 for
  Japan the Cairns Group at 30 the EU 30.

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Farm Bill Criticism Facts

• The new farm bill meets our trade obligations
  and the Congress provided a circuit breaker to
  assure that that will continue to be the case.

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CONCLUSION

• A lot of work has been done so far and much
  more needs to be completed. FSA and its
  employees are working hard to ensure prompt and
  efficient implementation of the 2002 Farm Bill.
  The Agency is committed to offering Americas
  producers the high quality of service they expect
  from FSA.

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FSAs Implementation of the 2002 Farm Bill