American Farmland Trust is disappointed in the agriculture appropriations bill reported by the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture.  The appropriations panel cleared, by a voice vote, the fiscal year 2013 spending bill, which cuts NRCS Farm Bill conservation spending by more than 700-million dollars on the fiscal year, or approximately 20 percent.

Jon Scholl, AFT president, says – the House appropriators’ indiscriminate cuts came at the same time the Senate Agriculture Committee brought its well-considered and thoughtful conservation program reforms to be debated on the Senate floor.  They stand in stark contrast.  According to Scholl, – while we understand the pressures to cut spending, we believe the Senate’s effort to streamline and consolidate programs to make them more cost effective and efficient, is, at the end of the day, the more fiscally responsible course.

AFT is particularly concerned with the House agriculture appropriations subcommittee’s measure cutting 50-million dollars from the Farm and Ranch Land Protection Program – which equates to a 25 percent reduction from the 200-million dollars mandated for FY 2013 in current law.