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ANLA, and our partners in the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance, are encouraged by the broad bipartisan support for the 2013 Farm Bill, demonstrated by the Agriculture committees of the U.S. Senate and House. Last week both committees passed their respective version of the bill last week. The Senate passed their version with a 15-5 vote and the House passed theirs with a 36-10 vote. Both bills look largely like they did last year – before final passage of a new Farm Bill fell short due to inaction by the U.S. House. This year the Senate is reporting about $23 billion in savings over ten years and the House reporting nearly $40 billion in savings.
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The powerful U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is beginning its third week considering S.744, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013. In the House of Representatives, a bipartisan negotiating group has announced a “meeting of the minds” on its own comprehensive immigration framework. And, on May 16, a House Judiciary subcommittee held hearings on an E-Verify bill as well as an agricultural guest worker proposal.
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The powerful Senate Judiciary Committee formally took up S.744 on May 9. The bill, formally known as the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013, had over 300 amendments filed by Judiciary members. The Committee is now in the process of what is known as a “mark-up,” in which many of the filed amendments will be considered and voted on.
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The Senate Agriculture Committee marked up its version of the 2013 Farm Bill on May 14th and the House Agriculture Committee is set to begin their mark up on May 15th. While the results of these hearing are not yet known we expect a fairly clean process in the Senate but the House committee may take a day or two. Most of the battles will be over the commodity programs (Title I), conservation (Title II), and SNAP (Food Stamps; Title IV).
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If you have not yet responded to USDA’s Census of Agriculture, please do so before May 31. “Every time we go to Capitol Hill or meet with USDA representatives,” says Marvin Miller, Ph.D., AAF, Ball Horticultural Company, West Chicago, Illinois, chairman of both SAF’s and OFA’s government relations committees, “we cite statistics from the USDA census, which prove how important our industry is as a leader in U.S. agriculture. This will be the document folks will refer to for five years when we compare our green industry to the rest of agriculture.”
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