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Peterson calls out Senate over dairy and cotton fixes

The ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee says his counterparts in the Senate have thrown a monkey-wrench into fixing cotton and dairy programs in the Farm Bill.

Congressman Collin Peterson of Minnesota tells Brownfield House leadership has presented a plan to expand spending provisions for both commodities, including more than four billion dollars over a ten year period for cotton.

“And the way they’re able to pay for that is by cancelling this generic base and also the signup for STAX.  But because it’s four and-a-half billion dollars and we have a bunch of people in the Senate that don’t like cotton, they have decided that they want half of the money that cotton is going to spend in dairy.”

Peterson suggests dairy doesn’t need that much money and says it would mostly benefit large producers, potentially leading to over-production and collapsing prices.

“We think we’ve got the right policy worked out.  It remains to be seen whether the Senate will be reasonable.  And if this all fails, it’s going to be because some people over in the Senate overreached on what they’re trying to do.”

He says fixes proposed by the House would not only help dairy and cotton farmers now, but deliver solutions on his two biggest priorities concerning the 2018 Farm Bill.

Peterson adds the clock is ticking on any budget deal containing these provisions as a continuing resolution that’s currently funding the federal government expires Friday.

 

 

 

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