Slater for Congress

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Farm Bill

Recently, Congress passed a landmark Farm Bill addressing some of today’s most critical issues facing farmers, related agricultural businesses and the environment. This bill is of particular importance to the tri-county 16th Congressional District. With total disregard for his constituency, Joe Pitts voted against the bill and supported the Bush veto. Happily, the veto was overturned by large margins due to bipartisan support.

Let me make clear why I support this new law and why I feel Joe Pitts has let us down again.

First, this is not just a farm subsidy act. Titled the Farm, Nutrition and Bioenergy Act, this new law addresses issues of far-reaching consequence.

The following are some of the programs that specifically benefit Pennsylvania agriculture:

a widely-praised $380 million program to address conservation needs in the Chesapeake Bay region
a variety of energy research and investment programs, totaling $1 billion, to enable Pennsylvania to establish a home-grown fuels industry
the expansion of the Women, Infant and Children program (WIC) and the Farmers' Market Nutrition Program
specialty crop assistance and risk management tools which will particularly benefit Pennsylvania's diverse agricultural operations
the extension and enhancement of the milk income loss contract program (MILC) to not only safeguard farmers in times of low milk prices, but also provide support in times of heightened feed costs, which they are facing today
federal funding support for state initiatives such as colony collapse disorder research on honeybees (supplemented with an additional $10 million per year)
new federal biomass crop assistance and biomass research and development programs, which will support Pennsylvania in the research and development of cellulosic feedstock for biofuel production

When Pitts voted to sustain the President's veto, he placed himself once again in the dwindling group of extreme 'rubber-stamp' Republicans who will back Bush no matter what. Pitts bucked the advice of many Pennsylvania farmers and farming experts. According to Pennsylvania’s Agriculture Secretary Wolff, many of the enhancements in this bill were based on recommendations made by Pennsylvania officials after two years' of hearings and compromise.

Joe Pitts clearly doesn't care about these important programs, which he and President Bush dismiss as mostly “pork'”. The facts are that, even if all items that Bush and Pitts deride as “pork” were eliminated from this bill, it probably wouldn't pay for two weeks of their signature national program - the war in Iraq.

After traveling around the 16th Congressional District for the last year and a half, I know that my friends and neighbors in Lancaster, Chester, and Berks Counties - both farmers and the consumers they help to feed - don't see it like Bush and Pitts. Constituents know that everyone across PA and the nation is struggling to deal with exactly the kind of rising food and fuel costs, the need for alternative fuels, and environmental problems that this farm bill specifically addresses. If you agree, please send the most powerful message you can back to Washington when you vote this November – send a brand new Democratic Congressman to represent the 16th Congressional District, Bruce Slater.

Bruce Slater is a member of S.A.V.E.
(Safety, Agriculture, Villages and Environment, Inc.)

View the S.A.V.E website