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Want to Know How You Can Help? Be an ADVOCATE. Advocates Alert: Senate Agriculture Committee Votes on Farm Bill; House Ways and Means End-of-Year Tax Package Includes Conservation Easement Extension
But the funding levels for those programs are much smaller than those approved by the House earlier this year. We need your help now to increase this funding when the bill is taken up by the full Senate, which could happen as early as next Monday. The Senate bill provides about $4 billion above the budget baseline for conservation programs. The House bill put about $500 million more in conservation than the Senate committee, distributed among the many US Department of Agriculture conservation programs very different than the Senate. The Alliance and many other organizations had pressed for at least $5 billion in the Senate bill (see the ad that ran in Capitol Hill papers ). The Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (renamed the Farmland Protection Program (FPP) in the Senate bill, but still applicable to ranch and pasture as well as farmland) would get $485 million over five years in the Senate bill, and the Grassland Reserve Program (renamed the Working Grassland Reserve (WGP) in the bill) would get $240 million. The House bill provided much more -- $995 million for FPP and $330 million for WGP. Please call your Senators today and ask them to support adding more funds to the Farmland Protection Program and Working Grassland Reserve, to protect valuable farm and range land from being lost to development. A number of amendments will be offered that may provide extra funds, including an amendment expected from Senators Dorgan (D-ND) and Grassley (R-IA) to limit the maximum amount of farm program payments to any individual. That would free up funds to be used elsewhere, and we are hopeful that part of those funds will be used to enhance FPP and WGR funding. Please ask your Senators to support amendments that increase funding for FPP and WGR! The Senate switchboard is (202) 224-3121, and they can connect you to any Senate office. Once online with your Senator's office, ask to speak to their natural resources or agriculture aide. Tax Incentive for Conservation Easements The Senate Agriculture Committee did not take up the tax provisions passed by the Finance Committee several weeks ago – those provisions (including making the new incentive for conservation easement donations permanent) will be added to the Senate farm bill as an amendment on the Senate floor. So far, this initiative seems to be in good shape. On the House side, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Charles Rangel (D-NY) released a draft of a major tax reform bill, which included extensions of expiring provisions. Those "extenders" are likely to move forward on their own, without the rest of the tax reform package, later this year. Chairman Rangel's extenders provisions include a one year extension of all of the charitable giving incentives passed in last year's Pension Protection Act, including the new incentive for donations of conservation easements. Clearly, we still have work to do on the House side to give priority to making the conservation easement incentive permanent! If your Representative has not cosponsored HR 1576, please ask them to now! See http://www.lta.org/publicpolicy/tax_incentives_cosponsors.htm for a list of House cosponsors. If your Representative is a cosponsor of HR 1576, please ask them to write or call Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rangel (D-NY) or Ranking Member Jim McCrery (R-LA) to ask them to accept the Senate provision on the conservation easement incentive, which is likely to be included in the Senate's farm bill. Thank you for your help!
Sign up to be a Land Trust ADVOCATE at: http://www.lta.org/publicpolicy/advocates.htm
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