PRINTER'S NO. 2593
No. 309 Session of 2001
INTRODUCED BY STABACK, OCTOBER 2, 2001
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON INTERGOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS,
OCTOBER 2, 2001
A RESOLUTION
1 Memorializing Congress to restore funding for conservation by
2 passing the Boehlert-Kind-Gilchrest-Dingle amendment to House
3 Resolution No. 2646, the Farm Security Act of 2001.
4 WHEREAS, Under the Boehlert-Kind-Gilchrest-Dingle amendment
5 to House Resolution No. 2646, the Farm Security Act of 2001, the
6 Farmland Protection Program (FPP) combats urban sprawl and is
7 funded at $100 million for fiscal year 2002 and ramps up to $500
8 million annually by fiscal year 2006; and
9 WHEREAS, The amendment reauthorizes Environmental Quality
10 Incentives Programs (EQIP) and authorizes a new program within
11 EQIP called the Watershed Quality Incentives Program. EQIP is
12 funded at $1 billion annually. Livestock producers receive 50%
13 of annual funding, and priority areas are removed. Eligibility
14 requirements will remain as currently written. In addition to
15 the annual $1 billion funding for EQIP, the Watershed Quality
16 Incentives Program is funded at $450 million for fiscal years
17 2002 and 2003 and ramped up to $700 million annually by fiscal
18 year 2006. This program will help landowners implement nutrient,
1 pesticide and sediment management practices to protect drinking
2 water supplies; and
3 WHEREAS, The Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP)
4 provides cost share for landowners to enhance wildlife habitat.
5 This program is funded at $200 million for fiscal years 2002 and
6 2003 and ramps up to $500 million annually by fiscal year 2006;
7 and
8 WHEREAS, The Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) protects,
9 preserves, enhances, and restores wetlands on marginal soils,
10 and provides for an additional 250,000 acres to be enrolled
11 annually; and
12 WHEREAS, The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is a long-
13 term cropland retirement program that enables producers to
14 convert highly erodible or environmentally sensitive cropland to
15 cover crops. CRP increases acreage enrolled to 45 million acres
16 and provides for 7 million acres to be enrolled in state-led
17 conservation efforts; and
18 WHEREAS, Conservation of Private Grazing Lands is a new
19 program that authorizes $20 million annually to help landowners
20 improve the ecological health of grazing lands; and
21 WHEREAS, The Grassland Reserve Program authorizes 3 million
22 acres to be enrolled in a Grassland Reserve Program and targets
23 environmentally sensitive grasslands, shrublands and blufflands;
24 and
25 WHEREAS, The Program to Assist Transition from Conventional
26 to Organic Farming is funded at $20 million for fiscal years
27 2002 and 2003 and ramps up to $50 million by fiscal year 2006;
28 and
29 WHEREAS, Mandatory funding for basic conservation technical
30 assistance increases by $200 million annually; and the Secretary
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1 of Agriculture is instructed to reimburse NRCS for the cost of
2 administering conservation programs, including CRP, WRP, EQIP,
3 FPP and the Grassland Reserve and Enhancement Program; and
4 WHEREAS, The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
5 is authorized to contract with qualified third parties to
6 provide technical assistance to producers; and
7 WHEREAS, The USDA is directed to ensure that conservation
8 programs are administered in a regionally equitable way; and
9 WHEREAS, The Secretary of Agriculture is allowed flexibility
10 in administering USDA conservation programs in order to approve
11 plans that coordinate and enhance the programs to address
12 conservation and farm preservation needs in critical watersheds
13 or corridors, and the secretary is allowed to approve multistate
14 or multiregional plans when a memorandum of agreement exists and
15 to give those plans priority and funding; and
16 WHEREAS, Increases in Urban and Community Forestry Program
17 funding create a Watershed Forestry Initiative, and the
18 amendment further allows for regional and watershed planning;
19 therefore be it
20 RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the
21 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania memorialize the Congress of the
22 United States to restore funding for conservation by passing the
23 Boehlert-Kind-Gilchrest-Dingle amendment to House Resolution No.
24 2646, The Farm Security Act of 2001; and be it further
25 RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be forwarded to the
26 members of Congress from Pennsylvania.
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