FARM BILL NEWS: The Good & Bad News
The Good News First:
The Senate hammered out an agreement last night to limit amendments to the Farm bill. Most of the really horrendous dirty water amendments to the Senate Farm Bill, did not make the final cut, which was welcome news! Last night's deal means numerous amendments targeted at gutting the Clean Water Act (CWA), including ones on stormwater and pesticides, will not see the light of day, at least not at this point in time.
Numerous CWN members are supporting an amendment being offered to the 2012 Farm Bill, The Soil and Wetlands Conservation Amendment (SA 2438)
introduced by Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA). Basic conservation
requirements to protect against soil erosion and wetland drainage have
been a condition of receiving farm subsidies since 1985. These
conservation requirements have dramatically reduced soil erosion on
farmland and protected wetlands, keeping land productive and important
natural resources intact. By shifting subsidies away from direct payments and towards a strong crop insurance safety net, this new 2012 farm bill would create a loophole in the longstanding requirements, that those who receive subsidies take
some minimal steps to protect the public good.
SA 2438 closes the loophole. The amendment modernizes the soil and wetland conservation provisions by reattaching highly erodible land (HEL) and wetland conservation to the receipt of federal crop and revenue insurance premium subsidies. The Soil and Wetlands Conservation Amendment would ensure that taxpayer funds are not rewarding agricultural producers who are draining
wetlands or farming highly erodible land without conservation measures.
The Bad News: Unfortunately last night's Senate agreement includes Senator Mike Johann's Amendment (D-NE), that would ban EPA from using aerial surveillance to nab violators of the Clean Water Act on concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs);That amendment will require 60 votes to pass.
We are more than likely guaranteed that most, if not all, of the dirty water amendments that were introduced in the Senate, will reappear when the House moves on its version of the Farm Bill. Then it will come down to the conference committee and behind the scenes negotiations. The Senate is debating and voting on the Farm Bill this afternoon. Stay tuned for more updates.
COAL ASH ALERT:
This is a reminder that we need your help TODAY & TOMORROW to generate calls and emails to the House. We are facing yet another attack from the House leadership, and we need to urge our Representatives to put our health and safety first. The House is not giving up on his plan to insert the dangerous coal ash amendment in the Transportation bill. Tomorrow (June 20th), the House will vote on a "motion to instruct" the transportation conference committee to include the coal ash amendment in the final bill. For more information check out CWN's fact sheet on coal ash HERE.
TAKE ACTION NOW!
We need you to ask your Representative to OPPOSE this motion to instruct. To contact your Representative, please follow these three simple steps:
To find
your representative, click here: http://www.house.gov/htbin/findrep?ZIP=
put your zip code in and follow the prompts. Call or email the staff members in charge of environment & transportation issues. Contact information for all House members can be found HERE. If calling, ask for the staffer listed under "transportation."
Tell the Representative's office that you'd like them to oppose the motion to instruct. Ask them to protect public health and to leave coal ash out of the transportation bill-- a bill whose goal is to keep America's infrastructure safe and create millions of American jobs.
