Farm aid may be target in US budget slash attempt

An ex-lawmaker has warned that Congress members keen to cut federal spending will look at US farm supports.

Charles Stenholm, who was a leader of fiscal conservatives in the US House of Representatives and currently a senior advisor at a Washington consulting firm, rang the alert on Monday (Jan 11) at a farm group meeting.

Stenholm said it could be hard to defend biofuel supports and grain subsidies, and farm supports and crop insurance may need revisions to stretch funding.

The US government is expected to release its proposals for the fiscal 2011 budget in coming weeks, with reports of a spending freeze or cuts may be implemented to constrain the federal deficit.

A year ago, US President Obama unsuccessfully proposed a US$250,000-a-year limit on farm subsidies and a phase out of the ''direct payment'' subsidy to farmers with more than US$500,000 in sales, together saving US$1 billion a year. The government also wanted to reduce crop insurance subsidies by US$500 million a year.

Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota, House Agriculture Committee chairman, plans to begin hearings early this year on an overhaul of US farm policy due in 2012. The hearings will explore successes of the 2008 farm law and new ideas in farm policy.

Stenholm noted that adaptations in farm programmes will be forced onto farmers by the budget.

Topping the agenda for the Senate Agriculture Committee are renewal of child nutrition programmes, action on financial regulatory reform and enactment of disaster relief due to harvest time storms in 2009 in the South and Midwest.