Jerry Hagstrom, The Hagstrom Report:
“Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., made clear Thursday that she remains determined not to move any of the $20 billion in climate-related conservation money in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) into the farm bill unless Republicans agree that the money will continue to be spent on climate-related conservation programs.
“On Wednesday, the Senate Agriculture Committee Republican staff issued a blog post urging moving the money into the farm bill because it could become part of the baseline and guarantee funding for conservation in future years. But Republicans in Congress have said they believe the money should be spent on a broader array of conservation programs and used partially to increase budget authority for Title I farm subsidies that kick in when prices or incomes go down.
“At a Capitol Hill expo on climate-smart agriculture programs with eight farmers brought to Washington by the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund and the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, Stabenow repeated a statement she had made a few weeks ago at a White House event that she wouldn’t consider any other use of the money.
“Stabenow said that the IRA included increased funding for 49 of the 50 top conservation practices that farmers use.
“’I don’t know when we will get another big investment like that,’ Stabenow said. ‘My goal is to make sure we don’t walk away from this historic progress.’
“’I would love to move all those dollars into the conservation baseline and stretch that out and make it go even further. But we have to do it within the language that was put in [the IRA] around climate-smart agriculture.’”
Stabenow noted that some Republicans have said they want to move half the money into the commodity title.
“’The answer to that is no,’ she said. ‘We need to tell the story over and over again, how significant this is, how important it is. We need to make sure those resources are there,’ Stabenow said to the farmers present and the many congressional aides who also attended the event.
“Asked by The Hagstrom Report after the event if her comments were a reaction to the GOP blog post, Stabenow said that if there would be a bipartisan agreement to keep the IRA money in climate-smart conservation programs, she would agree to moving the money into the conservation title of the farm bill.
“’We do that and we’ve got a winner,’ she said.”