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House
Passes Renewable Energy Funding In FY07 Agriculture
Appropriations
Tuesday
May 23, in a late night session, the House passed the
Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration,
and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, for FY 2007 (H.R.
5384), 378 to 46, with 8 Representatives not voting*. This
bill provides just under $94.5 billion (mandatory and
discretionary) in agriculture-related spending and valuable
funding for key renewable energy programs authorized in the
2002 Farm Bill (P.L. 107-171).
House
Agriculture Renewable Energy Program Appropriations:
- The Federal Procurement Program of Biobased
Products (Sec. 9002) is funded at its original
authorization of $1 million.
- The Biodiesel Education Program (Sec.
9004) is funded at its original authorization of $1
million.
- The Renewable Energy Systems &
Energy Efficiency Improvements program (Sec. 9006) is funded at $20 million in discretionary funds, plus
$3 million in mandatory funds for a total of $23 million, which makes the program fully funded.
This is $12.7 million above the President’s FY07
budget request.
- The Biomass Research and Development program
(Sec. 9008) is funded at its mandatory funding
authorization of $14 million. (The total authorization,
including discretionary funds, is $214 million for FY07).
This is $2 million above the FY06 appropriation and
the President’s FY07 budget request.
- The popular Value-Added
Producer Grant program (Sec. 6401) is funded at $28
million in mandatory funds, down from its original
authorization of $40 million for FY07, but up from its
final appropriation of $20.5 million in FY06.
A number of
interesting amendments were introduced and considered on the
floor on topics such as destruction of forests by exotic
insect infestation, milk income, wood utilization, peanut
storage and the sugar loan program. The latter invoked
interesting debate on the effectiveness of the program and
foreshadows the debate the House will see in another year on
the reauthorization of the Farm Bill, where the sugar program
may see possible changes especially, if sugar-to-ethanol
technologies play a role.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro
(D-CT), Ranking Member of the Agriculture Appropriations
Subcommittee, again introduced a bold amendment to increase
funding for renewable energy by $500 million. Unfortunately,
her amendment was ruled out of order.
This amendment also was considered in full committee
but failed 24-36.
If passed,
DeLauro’s amendment would “reenergize
our farm economy and communities and jumpstart our country’s
energy independence efforts” as explained by the
‘Additional Views’ in the House Appropriations Committee
Report (109-463). The
amendment provided: funding for the Biorefinery Development
Grants program (Sec. 9003), at $50 million; restoration of
$120 million to the Bioenergy program (Sec. 9010); funding of
the Value-added Agricultural Product Market Development Grant
program (Sec. 6401) at its authorized level of $40 million;
first time funding for the Energy Audit and Renewable Energy
Development program (Sec. 9005) to help farmers and ranchers
assess their options for energy conservation and renewable
fuel usage; doubled funding for Renewable
Energy and Energy Efficiency Improvement program (Sec.
9006) and the Biomass Research and Development program (Sec.
9008); funds set aside for loans to small businesses in rural
areas for improving access to renewable fuel filling stations
in rural areas; and an increase of $25 million for our
nation’s agriculture schools for research on biofuels.
The Senate
Appropriations Subcommittees have not received their funding
allocations and, therefore, have not yet scheduled their
markups, but markups are anticipated by mid-June. After
Senate passage of its version of the FY07 Agriculture
Appropriations bill, it will be conferenced with the House
bill.
Click
here for PDF of this release.
Click
here for House Appropriations Committee Release.
If
you have questions, please email or call Jetta Wong at jwong@eesi.org
or (202) 662-1885.
*
Three additional Representatives were not able to vote.
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