U.S. House Ag Spending bill to provide record amount of money for Ag research

by | Apr 20, 2016 | News

by Ben Nuelle

The House Appropriations Agriculture bill would provide highest amount in history for Agriculture research. House Appropriations Committee met just under seven hours Tuesday afternoon. The committee met to markup Agriculture and Energy bills.

Iowa?s 3rd District Congressman David Young is on the House Appropriations Agriculture Subcommittee. He says in the Agriculture Bill; $2.85 billion dollars will fund Ag research.

?When it comes to Agriculture Policy, you have to make sure there is someone from the heartland on this subcommittee. When Harkin and Latham got off the Appropriations committee, it was just that much more important for somebody from Iowa and the heartland to get on this.?

Young says this is the highest amount of funding ever for Ag research.

?I think folks are just recognizing the assets and outcomes we get from agriculture research and what that can do for better crop production and coming up with new products as well, bio-products that we get out of our agriculture products too.?

The House Ag spending bill totals to $147.7 billion dollars. Young says a great invest for the rural economy and agriculture.

?It provides $21.3 billion over the next year for USDA programs and that is also a $451 million reduction below last year?s levels but the investments are there and they are targeted in some very specific ways to get our biggest bang for our buck in Agriculture.?

The house will vote on the bill later this spring. Then the House and Senate will have to get together to figure out total spending for FY 2017 and will have to come up with a bill both chambers can agree upon.