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2016 budget includes loan provisions for beginning farmers

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says President Obama’s 2016 Budget creates a pathway toward continued growth and prosperity in rural America.  He says the budget supports sustainability and profitability of America’s farmers, particularly those just starting out.

“This budget contains budget authority for $6.4 billion of ownership and operating loans for farmers,” said Vilsack during a conference call.  “It will help finance nearly 43,000 loans; a majority of those loans, over 23,000, will go to beginning famers and socially disadvantaged farmers.”

Vilsack says trade promotion will continue because he says it’s good for not only agriculture but also good for jobs.

“These jobs pay somewhere between 13 and 18 percent more than non-export jobs,” said Vilsack, “so we’ll continue aggressively promoting trade and of course we’ll continue to work with other cabinet members in articulating the need for Trade Promotion Authority and for hopefully passage of Trans Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement at some point in time.”

Secretary Vilsack says that after comparing the latest budget with President Obama’s first full year budget in 2010, the 2016 one is lower.

“What you’ll find is that this budget is below what that first fiscal year budget in 2010 was, so it’s a testimony, I think, to the hard work of folks at USDA in identifying savings that we’re operating with a budget that’s below where it was 6 years ago,”

The secretary pointed out that USDA’s Blueprint for Stronger Service has saved taxpayers a total of $1.368 billion proposing the consolidation of certain programs in order to cut costs.

AUDIO: Tom Vilsack (50 min. MP3)