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To Members of the NASULGC System:
After an initial rush of activity at the beginning of the year,
the 110th Congress has been making slow but steady progress on
the appropriations bills of interest to NASULGC's Board on
Agriculture Assembly (BAA). This report describes recent
developments.
Procedural News:
Electoral Aftermath - Rule Changes. The House and
Senate are both operating differently this year. These changes
are a result of both the switch in control from Republicans to
Democrats and the Democratic Party's 2006 electoral
agenda, which included new rules related to the congressional
appropriations process. Revised procedures are particularly
noticeable in the House where official rule changes adopted at
the beginning of the current session require members to: (1)
disclose their sponsorship of an earmark, its intended
recipient, and purpose; and (2) specify in writing that neither
they nor their spouse has a "financial interest" at stake in a
project.
House Deadline Extended to April 27; Request Limitation
Lifted. In addition to the rules described above, House
members received instructions to submit their project (earmark)
and program requests to the 12 appropriations subcommittees by
March 16 and to limit these requests. Both the early deadline and
confusion over whether the limitation applied to only projects
or included programs and what constituted a "financial
interest in a project" led Appropriations Committee Ranking
Republican Jerry Lewis (R-CA) to petition Obey to extend the
March 16 deadline. Obey complied, and the deadline for requests
was extended to April 27. At the same time, any limitation on
the number of projects a member could submit was lifted. (The Senate deadline was March 31 and
there was no limitation on the number of requests that a senator
could make per subcommittee.)
Future of Earmarks Remains Unsettled. Despite the fact
that both House and Senate offices may now make unlimited
requests, the future of this practice remains
uncertain even as the F.Y. 2008 appropriations markups approach.
Earlier this year, House Appropriations Chair David Obey (D-WI)
pledged to cut in half the number of earmarks from F.Y.
2006 levels. (As you know, there was a moratorium on non-defense
earmarks in F.Y. 2007.) Recently, Obey has changed his message
telling a group of senior Republican appropriators that the
House might forgo earmarks all together. According to a report
in the April 24 Congress Daily:
| "I've told people that the way this place works
I wouldn't be surprised if in the end we didn't want
to put any earmarks in," Obey said, including in the
final versions negotiated with the Senate. "I can't
tell you if we're going to have earmarks or not
until I see what the hell they look like, until I
see what mood the House is in, what mood the Senate
is in." (See:
www.nasulgc-bac.com/documents/FY2007/CD_04-24.htm) |
Agriculture
Appropriations News:
House Hearing Held on March 20. The House
Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee held its annual
research hearing to receive testimony from and question USDA
witnesses about the Administration's F.Y. 2008 Budget
Request. USDA Under Secretary Gale Buchanan presented an
overview statement and CSREES Director Colien Hefferan
submitted a written statement for the record. Subcommittee
chair Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and other subcommittee members
posed questions to Buchanan, Hefferan, and other USDA
representatives. For more info, see our March 22 report.
LINK >>
www.nasulgc-bac.com/advocacy_reports/2007/03-22.htm
Senate and House Dear Colleague
Letters Delivered. As we have done in recent years, we
helped spearhead a bipartisan effort in both chambers to
support the Budget and Advocacy Committee's appropriations
request. The Senate letter was led by Sens. Blanche Lincoln
(D-AR) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and garnered a total of 18
cosigners. The House letter was led by Reps. Stephanie
Herseth-Sandlin and Charles "Chip" Pickering, Jr. and had a
total of 31 cosigners. Getting members to sign these letters
was more difficult this year due to the confusion of whether
programs counted as a "project" and uncertainty about the
meaning of the phrase
"financial interest." Copies of these letters will
be posted on the Web site in the next few days.
302(b) Allocation Forthcoming.
Before work begins on the F.Y. 2008 appropriations bills,
the subcommittees must receive an allocation (limitation)
specifying the maximum they can spend. In the past
few years, the Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittees have
received very "tight" allocations, dramatically limiting
their ability to provide the priority increases sought by
the BAC (and others). Although this year's 302(b)
subcommittee allocations will not be made public until
sometime in early May (usually in conjunction with the first
appropriations bill that is marked up), we anticipate
another "tight" year.
House Markup Possible Week of May 7. As you know
from the nightly news, the House, Senate, and White House
have been wrangling over an F.Y. 2007 Supplemental
Appropriations bill to fund the war in Iraq and other urgent
priorities. It is possible that this intra-governmental
struggle may go on for a few more weeks. If so, it could
push back the schedule for the F.Y. 2008 appropriations
bills. However, as this is written, the F.Y. 2008 process
remains on-track, with the first bills slated to be marked
up during the week of May 7. The Agriculture Appropriations
bill is generally one of the first to be acted upon.
The Cornerstone Team
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