Chance for reform

Last September, the 2008 Farm Bill expired without a new bill in place, creating a tremendous amount of uncertainty for Arkansas producers.

Row-crop farmers had no idea how to plan for the next year. Worse still, some programs, such as livestock disaster assistance, had already ended the year before, leaving livestock producers in the drought-stricken areas of Arkansas in dire need.

Across the country, farmers and ranchers started to believe they were forgotten by their government.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama’s spending agenda remained intact, and the food-stamp program continued to grow. Since the president came to office, food-stamp spending has more than doubled, and there’s no end in sight.

These issues could have been avoided if Congress had passed a reform-oriented Farm Bill. And while some saw the short-term Farm Bill extension in the last-minute fiscal-cliff deal as good news, I opposed the legislation because it was a bad deal for taxpayers. It allowed government spending to go unchecked, and created even more uncertainty for agriculture producers.

Once again we find ourselves in the same place as last year.

Farm programs will expire in September, and we will have zero savings and zero reforms if we don’t pass a new Farm Bill. We will continue to send President Obama a blank check because the food-stamp program never expires and remains on autopilot unless Congress makes changes.

Fortunately, we now have a chance to do something about it.

The House is considering a Farm Bill this summer that will finally create certainty for farmers, and make major reforms that will save taxpayers tens of billions of dollars. The Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management (FARRM) Act of 2013 saves nearly $40 billion by repealing and consolidating more than 100 outdated government programs and reforming many others.

I sit on the Agriculture Committee,and we were the only committee in Congress to voluntarily cut spending of this magnitude out of our budget in order to reduce the size of government.

The House Farm Bill is the first in decades to achieve significant savings to the food-stamp program, and represents the biggest cut to welfare programs since the 1996 welfare-reform law. Through common-sense reforms, we accomplish more than $20 billion in savings mostly by closing loopholes that allow bad actors who would otherwise be ineligible to take advantage of the program.

Families truly in need of assistance will continue to receive these vital benefits.

Some members of my party believe that the House shouldn’t even take up a Farm Bill.

I reject this idea and believe that Congress must do better for rural America and the American taxpayer. If we reject this cost-saving and reform-minded Farm Bill, Congress should be held accountable for supporting the status quo, which is simply unacceptable.

The status quo means uncertainty for producers and the Arkansas agriculture economy. It means that President Obama’s food-stamp spending will go unchecked, as his budget calls for no reforms-not even an attempt to tackle waste, fraud and abuse.

It is time for Congress to get serious and become better stewards of taxpayer dollars.

Going into the Farm Bill debate, I am committed to taking a strong, common-sense approach by embracing the principles of reform, budget-savings and regional fairness. I will continue to stand up for Arkansas by supporting a Farm Bill that works for both producers and taxpayers.

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U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford represents Arkansas’ 2nd District and is the chairman of the Livestock, Farm Credit and Rural Development subcommittee for the House Agriculture Committee.