Members of Rep. Ellmers AG Advisory Council, I am contacting you to share the fantastic news that the House Agriculture Committee Passed H.R. 6083, the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2012 with a bipartisan vote of 35-11 early this morning.  Congresswoman Ellmers is pleased with the language, and while we did have to compromise in places to come to an agreement, in general, she feels that this bill will work for all of agriculture.

 

The Congresswoman feels that North Carolina had some great wins with this bill, and she was happy to speak to and support a few different issues:

 

-          A no-cost study to be run by USDA on the possibility of poultry disruption insurance.

-          A no-cost study to be run at USDA on the feasibility of providing catastrophic loss insurance to the poultry industry.

-          An amendment to disqualify medical marijuana costs from food stamp-eligibility requirements.

 

-          The Ellmers-Pingree-Gibson, Farm to School Amendment.  This common sense, no-cost amendment would give more control to the States and local communities by allowing many small rural schools to start making their own food purchases if determined this would yield reduced administrative costs. The amendment would also create demonstration projects (at least one of these projects taking place within schools on a U.S. military base) in at least 10 schools to test alternative farm to school procurement models to USDA food distribution. 

 

**I am happy to report that all of these amendments passed by voice vote with wholehearted votes of Yeah from the AG Committee Members on both sides of the aisle

 

While we move forward with H.R. 6083, the Congresswoman will continue to push so that our farmers have certainty.  If you have any concerns or thoughts you would like to share on this language, please do not hesitate to call or email me.  I am happy to discuss these issues further as we move towards our end goal of passing into law the 2012 Farm Bill. 

 

Thank you all for your input over the last year.  It has been extremely helpful to Congresswoman Ellmers and myself as we have pushed for strong, conservative, responsible Ag policy for all of you, for the great state of North Carolina, and for our nation.

 

Thank you,

 

Allison Cooke

Legislative Assistant

Rep. Renee Ellmers (NC-2nd)

1533 Longworth House Office Building

Phone: (202) 225-4531

Fax: (202) 225-5662

http://Ellmers.house.gov