President Barack Obama on Monday released his blueprint for the 2013 federal budget. With an emphasis on reducing spending to address a growing federal budget deficit, the budget blueprint addresses all aspects of the federal government’s operations. USDA programs on the chopping block include those related to direct payments—which would be totally eliminated—and crop insurance. Funding for nutrition and research would remain about the same.
With $23 billion proposed in discretionary spending for agriculture in 2013, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack stressed that the budget proposal is not that far off from last year, when the president recommended $23.9 billion in discretionary spending.
“There are obviously tradeoffs in a budget that is stable,” Vilsack said. “All told there is somewhere in the neighborhood of about 30 programs that are impacted or affected either by being eliminated or by being reduced, which is consistent with the tough choices and tough calls that have to be made.”
On Capitol Hill, the leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture committees voiced their concerns about the president’s proposal.
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) said farmers and ranchers are willing to do their part to reduce the federal budget deficit, but the administration’s recommendations show a “lack of perspective and understanding in how agriculture can realistically contribute.”
Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, praised Obama’s plans to eliminate direct payments, but said she did not agree with cutting crop insurance.
“Farming is a high-risk business and we don’t want farmers and other small businesses going under because a few days of bad weather—it jeopardizes the economy and the safety of our national food supply,” Stabenow said in a statement.
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Lucas’s statement
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Stabenow’s statement
