KBC bush answers questions - farm bureau 100604

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President Bush responds to farmers

posted to KBC 10/6/04

America's farm policy will be debated during the next farm bill reauthorization. What policies would you propose to ensure that farming and ranching remains a viable industry?

I am aware of the challenges faced every day by folks who work their own lands. I believe the farm bill is working well. It resulted in generous payments to farmers when prices were low and farm income was declining. Prices for almost all crops and livestock are much higher today, net cash farm income is at record levels, and so the cost of the farm bill is declining.

To ensure that families can still make a living in farming and ranching, Congress should pass my proposed comprehensive energy legislation. Farmers are major energy consumers, and it is important that our energy policy ensures that they have a reliable and affordable supply of electricity and natural gas. And my energy bill encourages use of alternative fuels like ethanol and biodiesel. And, Congress should totally eliminate the death tax so families can keep their farms.

The 2002 farm bill contains a 70 percent increase in funding for conservation activities provided to farmers to maximize environmental benefits. Do you support the voluntary, incentive-based approach contained in the 2002 farm bill as opposed to mandates and what will you do to ensure they are adequately funded?

Yes, I support a strong and voluntary farm conservation effort that uses voluntary, incentive-based approaches. With the programs and incentives included in the new farm bill, we are helping our farmers preserve wetlands and wildlife habitats, and to better protect our water quality.

The 2002 farm bill includes several measures to conserve water and grasslands and doubled funding for conservation to about $40 billion over 10 years. In August, I announced my support for new conservation initiatives to protect the land now in the Conservation Reserve Program and to use this program to protect wildlife habitats for Bobwhite quail by setting aside 250,000 acres of wetlands.

The Conservation Reserve Program is also important in encouraging the conservation and protection of farmlands. It is the largest public-private conservation partnership in the nation. Nearly two-thirds of those contracts expire from 2007-2009. To address this, I directed the secretary of agriculture to offer early re-enrollments and extensions of existing CRP contracts, and also to enroll farmers for an additional 800,000 acres of land. We took action now to give farmers certainty in their planning. I have proposed a conservation tax credit to create a new incentive for private voluntary land protection.

American agriculture is a significant consumer of energy and a producer of renewable energy. How would you propose to change America's energy policy to meet today's energy needs while moving toward renewable energy sources in the future?

Rising energy costs affect all Americans, and as one of the largest consumers of energy, the agricultural industry is hit particularly hard. To help meet the energy needs of all Americans, including our farmers and ranchers, we need to invest in innovative and reliable energy sources. My balanced, comprehensive energy plan will ensure an abundant, reliable and affordable domestic energy supply for the present and the future. Many farmers are already acting on opportunities to develop and produce renewable energy, and I applaud and encourage their continued efforts.

Throughout my first term, I have repeatedly asked Congress to enact more than $4 billion for use through 2009 in tax incentives for energy efficiency and renewables, including an extension of the production tax credit for electricity produced from renewable resources such as wind, solar and biomass.

I have also repeatedly called on Congress to pass comprehensive energy legislation that includes a flexible, cost-effective, national renewable fuel standard that would require up to 5 billion gallons per year of ethanol and biodiesel to be blended into motor fuel. Once enacted, this renewable fuel standard would create new markets for U.S. agricultural products, help the farm economy and create new jobs.

And across my administration, we are working aggressively to develop more cost-effective renewable energy technologies and get them into the marketplace. For example:

Since 2001, ethanol production has more than doubled. We have built 22 new ethanol plants and nine are now under construction.
The Department of Energy's Million Solar Roofs program has installed more than 350,000 systems nationwide, more than tripling the program goals established by the previous administration.
The Department of the Interior has virtually eliminated the backlog in permitting requests for geothermal energy in the West, and has released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement aimed at accelerating the permitting process for western wind energy resources.
The Department of Agriculture has made more than $150 million in funding available this year alone for commercial production of ethanol and biodiesel through its 2005 bioenergy program.
America is blessed with a tremendous renewable resource base that can contribute substantially to our energy needs, and my administration is taking aggressive steps to ensure that renewable energy is a central part of our future energy strategy.

Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) is due for extension in 2005. Do you support the continuation of TPA? Will you submit a request to Congress for the extension of TPA in early 2005? How would you promote acceptance for products enhanced through biotechnology both domestically and internationally?

Agricultural exports are essential for American farmers and ranchers, and Trade Promotion Authority is critical to our credibility at the negotiating table. I strongly support the renewal of TPA, which gives the United States the ability to enter into trade agreements that will benefit the U.S. food and agricultural sector.

I am deeply committed to opening markets overseas for U.S. farmers and ranchers, and to leveling the playing field. Our farmers plant one out of three acres for export, and I have worked to create new opportunities for their products. My administration has embarked on one of the most aggressive market-opening trade agendas in our nation's history, and we have set the stage for reducing and eliminating unfair foreign farm subsidies. At the same time, we have been vigilant and have held our trading partners accountable for trade violations that hurt U.S. farmers.

Biotechnology plays an extremely important role in reducing environmental impacts of farming and meeting the world's increasing demand for food. It can lead to safer foods that are better for the environment because of improved crop yields, among other benefits. To help protect our farmers, who produce 70 percent of the world's biotech food, my administration opposes the labeling of genetically engineered food. USDA is also providing aid for U.S. farmers who wish to grow non-engineered crops, particularly for export.

Further, my administration has vigorously pressed our trading partners to eliminate bans and restrictions on genetically engineered agriculture products that ignore science. For example, we brought a World Trade Organization case against the Europe Union's baseless restriction on imports of genetically engineered products.

Agriculture requires sizeable assets to generate a small amount of income. For this reason, farmers and ranchers support a total repeal of the death tax and changes in the capital gains tax. Do you support full repeal of the federal death tax? What changes in the capital gains tax would your administration support to alleviate tax burdens on farm families?

Yes, I support full repeal of the federal death tax. I am working with Congress to make all tax relief enacted permanent-in addition to the recently passed five-year extension of the family tax cuts.

Many farms in America file their taxes as small businesses, and high taxes and tax increases stifle their ability to expand. I signed two of the largest tax cuts since the Reagan Administration, including reducing the marriage penalty, doubling the child tax credit to $1,000 per child, creating a new 10 percent tax bracket and putting the death tax on its way to extinction. We have also quadrupled the amount of investment that small business can write off in a single year, and have reduced taxes on capital gains and dividends.

With an average tax cut of $3,001, farmers are using their savings to pay the bills or reinvest in their farms. Repealing the death tax will make it easier for farmers to pass their land on to their children, and I will continue to work to make the repeal permanent. Finally, I have called for a bipartisan effort to make the tax system simpler, fairer and more pro-growth. The current code is a mess that requires Americans to spend 6 billion hours filling out forms and has far too many special-interest loopholes and priorities.

Nearly 75 percent of all listed species occur on privately owned lands, primarily farm and ranch lands. Should the Endangered Species Act be amended? If so, how? What would you propose so that farmers and ranchers do not continue to bear a disproportionate share of the costs of saving endangered species.

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) serves a noble purpose. But even with its successes, ESA has been undermined by a flood of litigation, preventing the Fish and Wildlife Service from protecting new species and recovering plants and animals already listed as threatened or endangered.

In my view, courts will not save species; focused, results-based conservation programs will, and farmers and ranchers should not have to bear a disproportionate share of those costs.

My administration is providing federal grants on a competitive basis to individuals and groups engaged in voluntary conservation efforts on private lands that benefit imperiled species. And with the help of more than $40 billion for wetlands and conservation programs as part of the 2002 farm bill, we are providing thousands of acres of new habitat for species and wildlife. I look forward to working with Congress to build on these efforts in modernizing ESA for future generations.

Comprehensive agricultural immigration reform is a priority for Farm Bureau. What reforms would you propose to ensure agriculture has an adequate and legal work force? Do you support adjustment of status for illegal immigrants?

The jobs being generated in our growing economy that are not being filled by American citizens represent an opportunity for workers from abroad who want to work and fulfill their duties. To make our immigration system beneficial for the economy and compassionate for our immigrants, I have proposed a new temporary worker program that offers legal status as temporary workers to the millions of undocumented men and women employed in the United States as of Jan. 7, 2004. This program will match willing workers with jobs that no American has filled. Temporary worker permits will be good for three years and will be renewable. The temporary worker program will help protect immigrants from exploitation, while helping strengthen our economy by providing a legitimate workforce for businesses like farms and ranches.

Our waterway transportation infrastructure is critical to our national security and economic competitiveness. As president, what would you do to ensure that it is adequately maintained and modernized?

The maintenance of our waterways is vital to jobs and economic growth. The Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, among others, are the arteries to the world marketplace. My administration has recognized the need to keep these vital arteries open. Since I came into office, we have increased funding to maintain and rebuild these waterways. I have proposed, and Congress is funding, major rehabilitations of locks 19 (on the Iowa/Missouri border) and 24 (south of Hannibal, Mo.). We are completing this work as quickly as feasible. Thanks to these types of improvements, congestion along the waterways has been held in check.

My commitment to securing American ports and waterways has rendered them far less vulnerable to the threat of terrorism than they were just three short years ago, and I am determined to continue protecting our nation's transportation infrastructure. We have coordinated action among federal, state and local governments, and the private sector to protect our nation's waterways, and just this past June, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge announced the implementation of sweeping new security measures to build upon the current high levels of security.

By taking a layered approach to security, DHS has used the expertise of its bureaus-such as the U.S. Coast Guard, which is charged with protecting ports and waterways-the private sector, state and local authorities, to create a system of protective measures that ensure security from one end of a water-based journey to the other.

The layered security measures are designed to protect the three phases of the journey: loading, transit and unloading. In November 2002, I signed the Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA) into law. The MTSA calls upon the Coast Guard to enhance its intelligence capacity; develop, review and approve vessel and facility security plans; and ensure that foreign vessels meet security standards.

To this end, I have called for $6.3 billion in Coast Guard funding for fiscal 2005, a 9 percent increase over the current budget and a 64 percent increase over funding levels that existed when I came into office.

Why should farmers and ranchers vote for you?

I understand how hard farmers and ranchers have to work. I was proud to be the governor of the second-largest farm state in the Union. I also own land in Texas. Farmers and ranchers face tough challenges, and my administration will continue to be in frequent contact with producer organizations that represent farmers in their states and in Washington, D.C. I also spend time meeting with farmers and ranchers and hearing their thoughts and concerns when I travel around the country. These communications are vital to the sustained success of rural America. I will continue to work closely with my friends in groups like Farm Bureau to make sure that your views are adequately represented in the federal government.

Every day is Earth Day when you own your own farm and work your own land. Farm families represent the best of American values: love of family and God, hard work and good stewardship of the land.

The last decade has been one of great change for agriculture and rural America. The continued deployment of new technology will give farmers access to increased knowledge and capital which, when combined with a renewed commitment to energy independence, will create new economic opportunities for rural America. We must not underestimate the power of technology to help family farms become more competitive. Increasing access to technology will create new business opportunities for farmers, such as the farmer-owned ethanol plants springing up across rural America today.

I support a strong farm conservation effort. With the programs and incentives included in the new farm bill, we are helping our farmers preserve wetlands and wildlife habitats, and to better protect our water quality.

We must make the tax relief permanent, including the repeal of the death tax. Unless Congress agrees to do this, the death tax will reappear in the year 2011, preventing families from being able to plan adequately to pass their operations to their children.

We also must continue to press for new market opportunities. America's farmers and ranchers produce the best crops and livestock in the world. Given the opportunity to compete on a level playing field, they will be able to increase their share of markets here at home and across the globe.

I am proud to have received the endorsements of numerous national, state and local agricultural organizations, including several state Farm Bureaus. With their support, and the support of farmers and ranchers across the country, I look forward to continuing my pro-agricultural agenda over the next four years.