Page 111 - Farm Bill Series_The 7 Things You Should Know

Focus on streamlining, simplification

Starting with the Super Committee process in 2011, then Senate Ag Committee Chairman
Debbie Stabenow knew there would have to be cuts in a new farm bill. One of the ways to do
that was to streamline and consolidate programs.

Rural Development, with dozens of programs that sometimes overlapped, was ripe for that type
of effort. There were 11 different definitions of “rural” and it was often difficult to figure out
which program could best apply where.

“We really need a simple system for rural counties to get the resources we need,” Bob Fox,
the county commissioner from Minnesota, told Agri-Pulse. “We don’t have a lot of resources or
the employees with time for going after grants.”

Throughout 2011, 2012, and 2013, agriculture committee staff pushed hard to make several farm
bill reforms that could simplify Title VI, as well as build on the regional approach that Fluharty
had long advocated for. The final conference report embraced a few of these changes.

For example, the rural development title authorized a new Strategic Economic and Community
Development initiative to prioritize projects that support economic development plans involving
multiple jurisdictions. Ten percent of the appropriation for this program was carved out for
projects that met the new criteria for strategic development.

Other programs were eliminated or combined. For example, he Rural Business Enterprise grant
program and the Rural Business Opportunity grant program were eliminated and their functions
were combined in the new Rural Business Development Grants program.

More focus was given to “local” foods – those products that travel less than 400 miles from farm
to consumer. Section 6014 re-authorized loans and loan guarantees for locally or regionally
produced food products, with the program targeting low-income and underserved communities
without access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

A new Rural Gigabit Network Pilot Program was created to bring ultra-high-speed broadband to
more rural areas. And an Essential Community Facilities Technical Assistance Training Program
was authorized to provide technical assistance and training for those who need to prepare reports
and surveys needed to request federal funds.

But one of the biggest opportunities for change – a reorganization and restructuring of the
Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (the Con Act) - never made it into the final
bill. It was included in the Senate-passed 2013 farm bill, but there were no similar provisions in
the House-passed version of the bill. In conference, the proposal was dropped.

Likewise, the effort to streamline the definition of “rural” and other revisions ended up on the
conference room floor, as a Congressional Research Service Report on the RD title indicates in a
side-by-side comparison of the House and Senate passed versions of the bill.

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