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Agriculture would take "more than its fair share of cuts," according to Farm Bureau staff members who have reviewed President Bush's proposed federal budget for fiscal year 2007. AFBF Farm Policy Specialist Mary Kay Thatcher said many of the president’s proposed farm spending reductions were floated in last year’s budget.

"We worked long and hard to defeat those proposals, and we’ll have to work for the next eight or 10 months to defeat them this time," she said.

Thatcher pointed out that 8 percent of Bush’s total budget reductions would come from farm spending, which is unfair given that agriculture accounts for less than one-half of 1 percent of the federal budget.

The Bush plan allocates $93 billion to USDA for fiscal 2007, down $3 billion from this year. The cuts call for 5 percent reductions in most crop programs including counter cyclical, direct payments, marketing loans and the MILC dairy program, according to Adam Sharp, OFBF's director of national affairs. Sharp said the plan also considers a payment cap of $250,000 per individual.

"Farm Bureau’s position is don’t cut," Sharp said, adding that "when you look at energy prices and the cost of production, now’s not the time to cut."

Thatcher said the 5 percent across-the-board reductions in payment programs would be "especially hurtful" to cotton and rice farmers.

Sharp said there’s a lot of work to be done on the budget.

"You know, on Capitol Hill, they usually look at the president’s budget and consider it dead on arrival," he explained. He expects between now and early summer a variety of alternative budgets will come out of Congress. "Farm Bureau and a number of other agricultural groups are going to be pushing to hold the spending and allotments of money that we have."