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Senate Agriculture Committee Approves Budget Reduction Plan – Conservation Programs Suffer

Press Room

Press Release

For Immediate Release
October 21, 2005
For more information contact:
George Cooper, (202) 508-3421

Senate Agriculture Committee Approves Budget Reduction Plan – Conservation Programs Suffer

WASHINGTON, DC - By a narrow 11-9 margin, on Wednesday, October 19, the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry approved the “Agricultural Reconciliation Act of 2005.”  The Reconciliation Act, as passed, included cuts of $3 billion to 2002 Farm Bill-authorized programs.  Conservation programs, including the tremendously popular 20-year old Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), the Conservation Security Program (CSP), and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, account for more than 30 percent of the total reductions agreed upon by the Committee, even though the Conservation Title comprises only 8 percent of total 2002 Farm Bill spending.

Wednesday’s action was a wake-up call to hunters, anglers, conservationists, and the thousands of farmers who utilize these conservation programs to practice sound land stewardship practices.  Double-digit increases in waterfowl, upland game birds, songbirds, and other wildlife numbers have been documented in multiple states, thanks to the CRP.  Additionally CRP benefits have included cleaner water and millions of tons of topsoil saved due to reduced erosion. All of this thanks to twenty years of CRP which currently has more than 35 million acres planted to permanent vegetative cover. 

Department of Agriculture personnel have indicated in estimates that if the proposal to reduce the number of acres allowed to be enrolled in the CRP by 2.8 million becomes law, signups to enroll new acres into the CRP and CSP will be stopped – something that has never happened in the CRP’s twenty-year history.  Both CRP and CSP will be limited to maintenance only of existing contracts.  

On October 18, twenty-nine of the nation’s hunting, angling, conservation and wildlife organizations sent a letter (letter available by request) to the Senate Agriculture Committee which pointed out that the Committee’s proposed cuts to 2002 Farm Bill programs were disproportionate when comparing the size of conservation programs to all others.  Wednesday’s Committee vote included cutting certain commodity payments by 2 ½ percent, authorizing a $1 billion, two-year extension of a controversial dairy program, and ending export subsidies for cotton. The letter sent Tuesday acknowledged the difficult budget situation in Congress and tough spending cut decisions facing the Senate Agriculture Committee, but urged the Committee to make cuts to Farm Bill conservation programs proportionate to cuts in other Farm Bill programs.

The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) facilitates coalition work on Farm Bill conservation programs through the Agriculture and Wildlife Working Group (AWWG). David Nomsen, Vice-President of Governmental Affairs for Pheasants Forever, is one of AWWG's co-chairs. Thursday Nomsen said, “Although Committee passage of the Agricultural Reconciliation Act of 2005 with its substantial cuts to future CRP acreage is disappointing, the budget reconciliation process is still in the first inning,” adding, “I look forward to other opportunities our community will have to make our case for the need to fund CRP and other Farm Bill conservation programs as fully as possible.”

TRCP President, Matt Connolly, after learning of the Committee vote pointed out that “Hunters, anglers, and conservationists need to continue to send a unified message to Members of Congress that cutting conservation programs to the extent approved would deal a direct blow to wildlife habitat, hunting and fishing, and to agricultural producers who exercise good stewardship of what remains of America’s diminishing undeveloped landscape.”

James Mosher, Executive Director of the North American Grouse Partnership and AWWG co-chair stated, “I urge every American hunter, angler and outdoor enthusiast to contact each member of their Congressional Delegation immediately and urge them to vote against inequitable budget cuts to conservation programs in the upcoming votes in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.”

For more information on the Budget Reconciliation process and its potential effect on Farm Bill conservation programs, and to learn about the work of the AWWG, please contact TRCP Policy Initiatives Manager, Lynn Tjeerdsma, using the contact information above.

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The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership is a coalition of leading conservation organizations and individual grassroots partners, working together to conserve fish and wildlife and their habitat,  increase funding for conservation and management, and expand access to places to hunt and fish.