[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 107 (Friday, July 18, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1528]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, AND 
               RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2004

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. SHERWOOD BOEHLERT

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 14, 2003

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill, H.R. 2673:

  Mr. BOEHLERT. Mr. Chairman, I rise today to express my concern about 
proposed cuts to conservation, energy, rural development and research 
program funding in this year's Agriculture Appropriations Bill. I 
realize this year has been especially difficult in light of the need 
for funding cuts. However, there are a number of programs that I feel 
are critical, including the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, 
the Conservation Security Program, the Wetland Reserve Program, and the 
Renewable Energy Systems, Energy Efficiency Grants and Value-Added 
Agricultural Product Market Development Grant Programs.
  Passage of the 2002 Farm Bill was a bipartisan victory for 
conservation, renewable energy and rural America. It contained landmark 
conservation, renewable energy, research, and rural development 
programs. The bill authorized nearly $3 billion for USDA conservation 
programs in FY 2004, including for funding for working lands incentives 
programs like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, the 
Conservation Security Program. However, the FY 2004 Agriculture 
Appropriations Bill would reduce these critical programs.
  By providing funding for working lands programs like EQIP and CSP in 
the 2002 Farm Bill, Congress dramatically increased funds to help 
farmers manage working lands to produce food, while also enhancing 
water quality and wildlife habitat. EQIP shares the cost of a broad 
range of land management practices that help the environment, includes 
more efficient use of fertilizers and pesticides, and promotes 
innovative technologies for manure management. CSP is a new program 
that will link conservation payments to gradually increasing levels of 
performance. Overall, these programs will provide farmers the tools and 
incentives they need to meet major environmental challenges.
  In addition, farmers have offered to restore more than 600,000 acres 
of lost wetlands by enrolling farmland into the Wetlands Reserve 
Program and restoring them. The Agriculture Appropriations Bill 
proposes to cut, rather than increase, funding for the Wetlands Reserve 
Program, which provides perpetual easements on farmland land and 
wetland restoration funds, this significantly reducing the benefits of 
the program.
  The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Improvements Program 
[(Sec. 9006) of the Energy Title] and the Value-Added Agricultural 
Market Product Development Grants Program [(Sec. 6401) of the Rural 
Development Title] were designed to spur the growth of renewable energy 
within the agricultural sector. Unfortunately, the House Appropriations 
Agriculture bill eliminates mandatory spending for both programs.

  Congress provided $23 million a year in mandatory funds under section 
9006 of the Farm Bill to provide grants, loans, and loan guarantees to 
farmers, ranchers, and rural small businesses for the development of 
renewable energy projects and energy efficiency improvements. Sec. 9006 
will help farmers save money by lowering their energy costs through 
efficiency improvements, and by enabling them to produce some of their 
own on-farm power. It also provides farmers the seed money needed to 
develop and market their renewable energy resources. This funding was 
embraced by the administration and both houses of Congress. However, 
today's bill only provides only $3 million in discretionary funding for 
section 9006.
  The Value-Added Agricultural Product Market Development Grant 
program, under Sec. 6401 of the Farm Bill, provided $40 million a year 
in mandatory funding. The program was created to spur development of 
new uses for agricultural products, and the 2002 Farm Bill amended the 
program to include renewable energy. [The House Agriculture 
Appropriations Bill only provides $13 million in discretionary funding 
for Rural Cooperative Development Grants. Of this amount $4,000,000 is 
for value-added market development grants.]
  Empowering America's farmers to produce clean, renewable energy is 
critical if we ever hope to achieve energy independence. By integrating 
renewable energy development initiatives throughout the Farm Bill, 
America's farmers can receive the support they need to develop their 
renewable energy resources, including bioenergy, wind, solar, and 
geothermal.
  The environmental and geopolitical risks associated with continued 
dependence on foreign oil are simply unsustainable. Dependence on 
fossil fuels has affected public health and our environment and 
unnecessarily diverted American dollars abroad when they could be kept 
at home. Long term, the United States must develop realistic 
alternatives to dependency on fossil fuels and these funds will enable 
us to begin sooner rather than later. American farmers are fully 
capable of and want to become part of a long-term solution to ending 
this harmful dependence. And, they can do so knowing that renewable 
energy production represents new income streams for their farms.
  Protecting funding for projects like those listed above is crucial 
because they represent a first step toward enlisting the help of the 
agricultural sector in a quest toward energy independence. I hope that 
as we complete the FY 2004 appropriations process we can enhance the 
funding for these innovative programs.

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