WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, delivered the following opening statement at the Committee hearing Perspectives from the Field, Part 4: Conservation.
In her remarks, Senator Klobuchar highlighted how conservation programs and their many supporters are a critical part of the broad, bipartisan coalition needed for the Farm Bill. She also noted her appreciation to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for reopening enrollment for the Conservation Reserve Program, which provides farmers and landowners with options for improving soil health, protecting water quality, and increasing wildlife habitats. She also acknowledged her longstanding partnership on conservation issues with Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and noted the recent reintroduction of their bipartisan conservation bill, The Agriculture Innovation Act which would improve USDA data collection and research of conservation practices.
The hearing panel featured: Gary Blair, President of National Association of Conservation Districts; Lynn Tjeerdsma, Board of Directors of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever; Chad Ellis, Chief Executive Officer of the Texas Agricultural Land Trust; Brad Doyle, Producer and Boardmember of the Arkansas Farm Bureau; Megan Dwyer, Director of Conservation and Nutrient Stewardship for the Illinois Corn Growers Association.
A rough transcript of Senator Klobuchar’s opening statement is available below and a video can be downloaded here.
Senator Klobuchar: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing today. Thank you to our witnesses who have come to share their perspectives. I have a lot of respect for them. I will say that as we are working on this important build up to what I hope will be a bipartisan Farm Bill, on the other side of the Capitol we have some cuts proposed to food assistance -- well near $300 billion that could make it very difficult to do a Farm Bill.
But I continue to believe in the work of this Committee, and I hope that we will find a way through this. I strongly support our work that we've done together on improvements to conservation. Conservation programs and their many supporters are a critical part of the broad bipartisan coalition needed for a Farm Bill. USDA voluntary conservation programs, and I emphasize voluntary, are open to producers across the country – big and small operations, row crop, livestock and specialty crop farms.
They assist farmers, ranchers, sportsmen and many others, to improve soil health, water quality and wildlife habitat.
I've long championed these conservation programs, and have seen how they can make farms more profitable and resilient while supporting the communities around them – wildlife, hunters and fishers in my home state of Minnesota. I've also led efforts to improve conservation programs, including with Leader Thune in the last Farm Bill to increase the number of acres in the Conservation Reserve Program and to create a pilot program to study innovative approaches to improve soil health.
I want to thank USDA for reopening sign up for CRP without major changes to the parts focused on wildlife that I have long championed and will continue to champion. I'm also looking forward to again joining with the majority leader this week to introduce an updated version of the Agriculture Innovation Act, with the support of farmers and conservation groups. This is part of my commitment to ensure strong conservation initiatives are in place.
Since the last Farm Bill, Congress has made historic investments in voluntary conservation programs. Despite this, investment demand from farmers and conservationists continue to outpace available funding. It's my hope that there will still be an opportunity to create increased long-term funding for the USDA voluntary conservation programs in the Farm Bill baseline. But I am concerned about the recent loss of 2,400 employees from NRCS, the pauses in funding, the cuts to technical assistance and a troubling budget proposal, which are pushing us in the wrong direction.
Connecting farmers with conservation voluntary conservation programs involves critical partnerships between USDA, local conservation districts, wildlife organizations, states and businesses. These partnerships and NRCS staff in rural America are important for operating the programs that the farmers rely on. Funding disruptions are unfortunately impacting these partners, and uncertainty has meant furloughs for many staff.
I've heard from farmers across my state that they need certainty: the certainty of their USDA experts and partner organizations like the ones that are here today.
We are glad that some funds are slowly being released and programs like CRP reopened, and of course, this needs to be a major part of any Farm Bill agreement for a future Farm Bill as we go forward. So I look forward to hearing from all of you. Thank you.
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