Tag: Farm Bill

COLORADO SEN. MICHAEL BENNET has been appointed to the Farm Bill Conference Committee, the bipartisan coalition charged with reconciling the radically different farm bills that came out of the Senate and then the House this summer.

WHEAT RIDGE, Colo.-- Last week U.S. Republican representatives voted to exclude the nation’s revamped food stamps program from the House version of the 2013 farm bill. This week, the Colorado Public Interest Research Group released a report on what it calls the farm bill’s wasteful agricultural-subsidy spending, joining with farmers to ask Congress to make real reforms before passing the vital five-year legislation.

The titanic piece of legislation known simply as "the farm bill" is being debated again in Washington. The legislation is critical for Colorado, where agriculture contributes $40.7 billion annually to the state economy, making it the second-largest revenue-generating industry after tourism.

Four leaders of congressional agriculture committees sent a letter to congressional “super committee” members proposing $23 billion in agricultural cuts Monday.

Sen. Michael Bennet urged Pres. Barack Obama late last week to finalize and implement rules to even the playing field for small ranchers and chicken farmers in competition with corporate giants in the industry. Sustainable food advocates, who have been traveling the country asking legislators to sign on to similar letters, claimed the senator's move as a minor victory in what they see as a battle between David and Goliath.

The writer and activist Michael Pollan has no interest in becoming Barack Obama's Secretary of Agriculture, thank you very much, even though there are a lot of people who think he'd be perfect for the job.

Yesterday, President-elect Barack Obama went after subsidies to wealthy farmers as “a prime example” of the abusive federal spending he hopes to rein in from his perch in the White House. He forgot to mention that, as a senator, he endorsed the bill in May, even as critics pointed out that the eligibility rules allow millionaires to be subsidized with taxpayer dollars.

How small town voters will go for one of two city-slicker presidential candidates may turn not to values or who looks most convincing in a Stetson hat but assurances that rural economic concerns will be among the next administration's tight budget priorities following the massive financial sector bailout by the government last week.