American agriculture is “going through a rough patch right now,” so the Senate Agriculture Committee “will move as quickly as possible in a bipartisan fashion … to get the governor down to the department,” chairman Pat Roberts said, referring to the nominee for agriculture secretary, former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue. The committee has scheduled a confirmation hearing for Thursday at 10 a.m. ET.
At the Agri-Pulse Farm Bill Summit, Roberts indicated he expected no difficulties in Senate approval of the nomination. The former two-term governor was President Trump’s final choice for his cabinet and was announced Jan. 19, after the longest search for a USDA chief since 1933.
“I think he’s going to make a good secretary,” Roberts told reporters. “His temperament, he wants to get things done.”
Asked if Perdue, an agribusinessman, would face skeptical questioning, Roberts said, “I expect a lot of questions will be what he will do as secretary” to respond to “a tough patch in farm country.”
Cash farm income is down 31 percent from its 2013 peak with little improvement expected in the near term.
In separate appearances, Roberts and House Agriculture Committee chairman Michael Conaway said no additional money was likely for the 2018 farm bill. The senior Democrats on the committees, Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson and Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, said more funding would be appropriate. “I think we deserve a little extra money,” said Peterson. After noting that a broad array of farm groups support higher funding, Stabenow said, “Certainly, I would be willing to do that. It would be hard to do.”
Roberts urged the White House, which withdrew from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership and says it will renegotiate NAFTA, to keep in mind the important of farm exports to the ag economy. “A strong trade policy isn’t just selling what our country produces. A strong trade policy also is selling what our country grows,” said Roberts.
For his part, Conaway poured cold water on Peterson’s proposal to boost the ceiling on enrollment in the Conservation Reserve to 40 million acres, from the current 24 million acres. “He’ll have to figure out where that money will come from to do it,” said Conaway, who says any expansion in farm bill programs must be accompanied by an offsetting cut.
Wildlife groups such as Pheasants Forever say a larger Conservation Reserve would pay benefits in water quality and improved wildlife habitat as well as providing economic stability to rural areas. USDA pays an annual rent to landowners who agree to idle fragile land for 10 years or longer. When Congress wrote the 2014 law, high commodity prices lured landowners to put land into crop production. Interest in the Conservation Reserve is rising now that crop margins are tighter.