Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman today voted to override the veto of a measure that provides significant funding for nutrition initiatives and agriculture producers. The vote was 82-13. The House of Representatives voted to override the veto Wednesday, so the bill is now considered law.

The Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008, which President Bush vetoed earlier this week, includes more than $10 billion in increased funding over ten years to help low-income Americans with nutrition assistance -- including $7.8 billion for the Food Stamp Program and $1.26 billion for the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP).

Among a number of significant changes:

• For the first time since the program was created 40 years ago, the bill would change the food stamp rules to account for inflation;

• It would support working families by eliminating the cap on how much a family can deduct for child care expenses when determining whether they are eligible for food stamps, and how much they are eligible for; and

• It would dramatically increase the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables to students in high need schools.

Under this bill approximately 100,000 New Mexicans would see additional benefits by 2012. In fact, New Mexico would see an increase of about $5 million in benefits in 2009 alone, and an increase of approximately of $77 million over ten years.

“One of the most important aspects of this new law is the funding sets aside for nutrition initiatives,” Bingaman said.

The bill expands and makes permanent an initiative Bingaman first championed in 2006, which provided $1 million for 25 New Mexico schools to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables. Instead of serving just New Mexico, the bill makes this a national $1 billion initiative – one that will provide New Mexico schools with up to $2 million annually to purchase fresh fruit and vegetables.

The Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 also contains $5 billion over ten years for soil and water conservation such as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). About $66 million over five years would be available in New Mexico to enroll up to 2 million acres in the new Conservation Stewardship Program to promote agricultural production and environmental quality as compatible goals. Flexible funding would be available for a variety of conservation practices.

The new law also contains the following:

• $1 billion in new spending to help promote production and marketing of specialty crops such as chile and pecans. About $400,000 per year would be available to the New Mexico Dept of Agriculture.

• $1 billion in federal support over five years for farm-based energy programs, including assistance for conversion of crops such as sorghum to ethanol and animal manure to energy.

• A new $3.8 billion permanent fund to help farmers and ranchers deal with natural disasters, such as drought.

• Puts into effect this year a workable approach to Country-of-Origin labeling for meat and produce.

“There is a certain amount of risk associated with farming and ranching. This law will help bring some peace of mind to the farmers and ranchers of our state,” Bingaman said.

Of particular interest to New Mexico, Bingaman reported that the bill extends the current safety net for our peanut producers and extends, albeit at a reduced level, a peanut storage program that expired last year that helps peanut producers market their peanuts. The new peanut storage program will apply starting with the 2008 crop.

Bingaman said, however, he is disappointed that the bill extends and increases the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program, which New Mexico dairy producers oppose. The subsidy has cost taxpayers $2.5 billion over the past five years and is projected to cost an additional $1.6 billion through 2012.