House
Passes Farm Bill, Senate Approval Expected
On
January 29, 2013, The House of Representatives passed a multi-year Farm Bill
known as the Agricultural Act of 2014. The bill will set national agriculture
policy and reauthorize many U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs for
the next five years. The horse industry
is not as dependent on programs authorized by the Farm Bill as other segments
of American agriculture. However,
several programs important to the horse industry are reauthorized by the bill,
including livestock
disaster programs, the Market Access Program, and the Environmental Quality
Incentives Program.
The
bill is expected to be passed by the Senate and signed by the President in the
near future.
Agricultural Act of
2014
The
bill will reauthorize and maintain current funding levels for the Market Access
Program (MAP) until 2018. MAP provides funding for overseas marketing and promotional activities
to help build commercial export markets for U.S. agricultural products and commodities.
The program is used by the horse industry to promote American horses to foreign
markets.
The
bill will also reauthorize the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).
EQIP is a voluntary program that provides financial and technical assistance to
agricultural producers. Assistance includes help to plan and implement
conservation practices that address natural resource concerns and provide opportunities
to improve soil, water, plant, animal, air and related resources on
agricultural land and non-industrial private forestland. Horse farms and
ranches are eligible for this program.
The
Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP), the Livestock Forage Program (LFP), and the
Emergency Livestock Assistance Program (ELAP), which expired in 2011, are reauthorized.
These programs are administrated by the USDA Farm Service Administration and
compensate livestock producers, including horse breeding farms and ranches, for
the loss of animals from natural disasters and diseases, and help producers who
have lost grazing land from drought pay for feed.
The
bill explicitly includes horses in the definition of livestock and ensures
horse farms and ranches are eligible for disaster programs open to other
livestock producers.
Additionally,
the manager's statement accompanying the bill recognized the importance of
equine health and encouraged USDA to increase resources for equine health
research in its annual budget request.
The
AHC supported reauthorization of these programs that are beneficial to the
horse industry and the manager's statement regarding equine health.