Below is an article from E&E News about the May 1 Senate hearing on
Farm Bill conservation programs.

AGRICULTURE: Harkin hones in on CSP, energy crops for farm bill
request Allison Winter, E&E Daily reporter
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) is scaling
down his wish list for the next farm bill to try to make it fit into
a smaller budget.

Top on his priority list for the conservation title: a bigger
Conservation Security Program and provisions that would let farmers
grow energy crops on what is now the largest land retirement program.
At a committee hearing on conversation yesterday, senators and
witnesses from farm and environmental groups detailed numerous
requests for the farm bill. They all want more acreage in land
retirement programs, more money in cost-share environmental
assistance programs and greater access for local farmers to school
lunch programs or fruit and vegetable markets.
"How are we going to pay for this?" Harkin asked. "We'll be lucky to
hang onto what we have."
Harkin has been one of the most vocal advocates for farm bill
conservation programs, and at the outset of his chairmanship, he was
enthusiastic about big increases for this title of the farm bill. But
his remarks yesterday were more despondent, facing lower budget
estimates with a reserve fund that requires offsets he said would be
difficult to find.
"I just don't know what we can get. It doesn't look too good," Harkin
said of spending increases. "The reserve fund doesn't mean anything
unless we get the money offset. Good luck with that."
In a speech similar to one House Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.)
gave conservation advocates at a hearing in his panel two weeks ago,
Harkin called on witnesses to "build constituencies" to press members
for greater support for conservation and the farm bill. "We have to
battle for every penny," he said.
If he had the money, there is a lot Harkin would like to expand in
the conservation title. But Harkin said in an interview after the
hearing that his top priorities are expanding his pet program, the
Conservation Security Program, and changing the Conservation Reserve
Program to include payments for farmers to harvest grasses for
cellulosic ethanol.
First begun in the 2002 farm bill, CSP gives incentive payments for
farmers who make environmental improvements on their land. The
program has floundered under spending cuts and a back-and-forth
between the Bush administration and Congress on what it should look
like. Current rules limit its availability to seven watersheds on a
rotating basis. Harkin wants CSP to function as a nationwide,
uncapped entitlement.
"It should be viewed not as a stepchild, but as something integral to
all programs," he said.
Harkin also wants to alter the Conservation Reserve Program to allow
farmers to use some of its acres to grow grasses that could be used
for cellulosic ethanol. Farmers would take a reduced payment for CRP
and have the opportunity to harvest their crops, once cellulosic
technology is up and running. Currently CRP functions strictly as a
land retirement program.
Hunting and environmental groups, who call CRP the "holy grail" for
wildlife, prefer keeping the current rules for CRP and using a new
program for enhancement payments for energy crops. A new program
would allow USDA to enroll different land into the program more
strategically for energy use, said Julie Sibbing of the National
Wildlife Federation.
Meanwhile, other members of the committee have differing priorities.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) is working on a bill that would allow
states to designate certain areas for cellulosic ethanol, and use CSP
to give farmers payments to grow energy crops in the designated area.
Ferd Hoefner of the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition said that might
work better than Harkin's idea to link the crops to CRP.
And Sens. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said
they want to incorporate climate change into existing conservation
and energy programs, to help farmers participate in carbon offsets.
[Note: Chambliss remarked on the need to examine and consider the
Administrations' proposal to create a market-based approach to
conservation. According to the Administration their proposal would
provide the mechanism to construct and create credit trading
opportunities for landowners for such things as wildlife species and
habitats, soil and water conservation, and carbon sequestration.]
*******************************************
Jennifer Mock Schaeffer
Agriculture Conservation Policy Analyst
Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies
444 N. Capitol St., NW, Suite 725
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: 202-624-7890 / Fax 202-624-7891
Email: jenmock@...