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Federal spending will be cut by several billion dollars over the next five years. The question is by how much and how will agriculture be affected.

As of press time, the House had proposed a $54 billion cut in overall government spending, including $3.7 billion for agriculture. The proposal calls for cutting direct payments to farmers for crop years 2006 to 2009 by 1 percent, reducing advance payments from 50 percent to 40 percent for crop years 2006 and 2007, limiting spending in conservation programs and making several cuts in energy, research and rural development programs that haven't been funded recently, said Adam Sharp, OFBF's director of national affairs. The House also has proposed cutting $844 million from the food stamp program and not extending the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program.

Under the Senate bill, which passed 52-47, overall federal spending would be cut by $34 billion, including $3.1 billion in cuts to food and farm programs. All farm program payments would be reduced by 2.5 percent for the 2006 to 2011 crop years, and the amount a producer could receive in advance direct payments would drop from 50 percent to 40 percent for 2006 and 29 percent for the 2007 to 2011 crop years. The bill also would limit expenditures on the Conservation Reserve Program, Conservation Security Program and Environmental Quality Incentives Program and extend the MILC program through Sept. 30, 2007. The Senate did not propose any cuts to the food stamp program. Ohio Republican Sens. George Voinovich voted for the spending bill while Mike DeWine voted against it.

The Senate bill also would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil drilling, which is supported by the American Farm Bureau Federation. Senators narrowly defeated an amendment that would have stripped the measure from the bill.

"There will be some serious House-Senate conference committee battles because there's such a large gap between $35 billion and $56 billion," Sharp said.

Earlier this month, the Senate passed a $100.2 billion food and farm spending bill for fiscal year 2006, which the House had already signed off on. The bill sent on to President Bush included a two-year delay on mandatory country of origin labeling (COOL) until 2008. OFBF supports voluntary COOL for livestock and mandatory COOL for fruits and vegetables.

Also in the bill was $28 million allocated for avian influenza, $30 million to study the effects of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) on humans and $17 million for continued surveillance of BSE. By a 53-46 vote, lawmakers rejected a proposal by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, to cap the size of farm subsidies at $250,000 a farm.