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| Advocacy > Federal > Legislative activities > AVMA legislative agenda > Issue brief |
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| Issue brief |
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| 2007 Reauthorization of the Farm Bill |
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| Summary: |
| The Farm Bill is an omnibus multi-year authorizing law that deals with major farm and food legislation. There are ten titles included in the Farm Bill which authorizes a variety of USDA programs. The specific titles are: I - Commodity Programs, II - Conservation, III - Trade, IV - Nutrition Programs, V - Credit, VI - Rural Development, VII - Research, VIII - Forestry, IX - Energy, and X - Miscellaneous section. The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (P.L.107-171 [2002 Farm Bill]) expires in 2007. The AVMA has identified the farm bill reauthorization of 2007 as a major piece of legislation which will impact animal health, animal welfare, and agricultural research. |
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| AVMA Position: |
| The AVMA supports the 2007 Farm Bill, and the legislative score for the 2007 Farm Bill is active pursuit of passage. |
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| Purpose: |
| The Farm Bill is a multi-year law that deals with major farm and food legislation. The bill includes 10 titles and authorizes USDA's commodity program support, conservation and Forestry, renewable energy, research, trade, food stamps and other nutrition assistance, and rural development. Some specific proposals in 2007 Farm Bill include: tighten payment limits for commodities to $200,000, create revenue based counter-cyclical commodity payments, increase conservation funding by $7.8 billion, rename the Food Stamp Program the "Food and Nutrition Program", provide $2.75 billion in additional fruit and vegetable purchases for distribution in assistance programs, provide $1 billion for specialty crop research, and provide $500 million to create the Agriculture Bioenergy and Biobased Products Research Initiative to name just a few. |
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| Why AVMA Supports this Issue: |
| The 2007 Farm Bill will impact animal health, animal welfare, and agriculture research and a wide variety of other agricultural issues; and the AVMA seeks to insure a science-based decision making process. |
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| Known Opposition to the AVMA Position: |
| No specific opposition to AVMA position; however, it is possible that attempts will be made to introduce amendments to the Farm Bill which the AVMA opposes i.e., elimination of gestation stalls for swine, other animal welfare legislation and/or the elimination of the use of antibiotics in animal agriculture (either for growth promoters and/or disease prevention |
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| Current Status: |
| In a bipartisan effort the House Agriculture Committee unanimously approved the Farm Bill on July 20. However, the party unison was short-lived. Once the Farm Bill reached the floor of the House, the Republicans balked at the efforts of the Democrats to provide additional funding for the Farm Bill through what was described as a tax increase by the Republicans (the Democrats characterized the additional funding as "closing a tax loophole"). The final vote in the House was 231-191 in favor of passage. The Senate is expected to take up the Farm Bill in Committee the second week in September. Senator Harkin has stated he will seek to "improve upon" the features of the House version of the Farm Bill. Specifically, Senator Harkin will try to enhance the Conservation Title, making more land available for the Conservation Security Program and has suggested he would like to see lower payment limits for commodities. |
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| For More Information: |
| Please contact Dr. Angela Demaree (ademaree@avma.org) at the AVMA-GRD at 800-321-1473, ext. 3211 or visit www.avma.org/advocacy/federal/. |
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| Offsite information |
| H.R. 2419 Farm Bill Extension Act of 2007: Summary; Text; cosponsors |
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Go to the Government Action Center |
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American Veterinary Medical Association
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