Washington outlook

American Forests, Summer, 2008 by Gerry Gray, Laura Schweitzer

After more than 18 months of debate and deliberation, Congress passed the Farm Bill (HR 2419), officially titled the Food and Energy Security Act of 2007. The bill, which passed 318-106 in the House and 81-15 in the Senate, has been hailed as a bipartisan effort since many of those voting 'yea' were in the Republican congressional minority.

President Bush subsequently followed through on his promise to veto the bill, which he said did not do enough to cut subsidy payments to farmers. Despite this, the bill went on to become law due to a successful Congressional override of the veto.

The Farm Bill is a thorny piece of legislation to get passed by Congress. On one hand, it falls into the 'must pass' category because it deals with authorization language and funding for issues such as nutrition assistance, subsidies for agricultural commodities, land conservation, agricultural trade, agricultural marketing, and rural development.

On the other hand, quite simply because it is so massive, the task of getting agreement across the diverse membership of Congress is a tremendous undertaking. This Farm Bill was particularly grueling as Congress strove to meet demands that it overhaul subsidy programs, yet avoid changing financial delivery systems so drastically as to destabilize the agriculture sector.

Additionally, Congress heard from more stakeholders than ever as an increasing number of interest groups worked for a piece of the Farm Bill pie. Congress was also operating on an incredibly tight budget allocation, meaning it had smaller amounts of money to work with despite a growing number of interests making demands.

To understand the part forestry and conservation programs play in the Farm Bill, you must understand the context under which the Farm Bill gets passed. Such a large and complex bill gets passed slowly and incrementally. It was, in fact, the intent of the nation's framers that legislation should move forward slowly so that bills face intense scrutiny before becoming law.

Conservation and forestry programs are relatively new to the Farm Bill. The first Farm Bill, passed in 1933, primarily focused on ensuring food supply and security for the country. A Conservation Title was not included until 12 iterations later in 1985. The Forestry Title did not appear until the 1990 version and was subsequently excluded in the 1996 bill; lawmakers reinserted it in 2002. Over time, the nation's needs and values have changed, which led to the inclusion of the Conservation and Forestry titles. Nonetheless, the Farm Bill is a massive piece of legislation and changes to its priorities will occur slowly.

The 2008 Farm Bill continues to remain predominantly focused on food supply and security. About 66 percent--$200 billion over five years--will go towards food stamps and other domestic nutrition programs like emergency food assistance. Subsidies for rice, cotton, corn, soybeans, wheat, and other crops fall in at about 14 percent, or $43 billion. Crop insurance to help farmers protect against losses is about 8 percent of the bill's funding, or $23 billion. Conservation and forestry programs come in at just 9 percent of funding, around $27 billion.

While it may appear that conservation and forestry programs receive a small part of overall Form Bill funding, the 2008 bill did increase the percentage of spending from just under 7 percent in 2002 to 9 percent now. That 2 percent increase amounts to about $4 billion over five years, a significant amount for conservation and a very significant amount relative to what's been available for forestry programs in past years.

The Forestry Title, under which private forestry and many cooperative forestry programs have typically fallen, has some exciting new authorizations. We are pleased by the inclusion of the Community Forests and Open Space Conservation Program, a new grant program to be carried out by the Forest Service, that will provide grants to assist local government entities, Native American Tribes, or nonprofit organizations acquire private forestland. This land is threatened by conversion to nonforest uses and provides public benefits. The program was authorized with funding as needed, so we will need to work with partners to urge congressional appropriators to provide strong funding .

We are also pleased to see programs in the Energy Title that focus on woody bio-moss, such as the new Community Wood Energy Program and the Forest Biomass for Energy Program. The Community Wood Energy Program authorizes competitive grants to state and local governments to upgrade or acquire small-scale community wood energy systems. Using low-value woody biomass, these systems would primarily be used to heat or provide limited energy to local buildings.

The Forest Biomass for Energy Program authorized a competitive research and development program on using forest biomass for energy, emphasizing the use of low-value forest products.

Regardless of its funding percentage, the Farm Bill is important to private forestland management in the U.S. It is a key mechanism for reassessing and updating existing programs and adding new ones for private forestland conservation. Forestland programs fall primarily under the Forestry Title; however some programs in the Conservation Title also include authorities for forestland.