but it also allows irrigation districts to be eligible for funds. Finally, it eliminates the Conservation Stewardship Program. The irrigation industry welcomes these changes, but the future focus should be on a balance between productivity and conservation.
The current farm bill expires on Sept. 30, 2018. While we remain cautiously optimistic that a farm bill passes Congress and will be signed into law by this deadline, this is not a time for apathy. It’s time for irrigation’s voice to be heard. For more information how to be involved, please visit
www.irrigation.org/farmbill or
www.waccoalition.org.
Infrastructure
In February, the Trump administration released an outline for the much-anticipated infrastructure package. With a proposal now out, it’s up to Congress to figure out how to not only fund the package but also decide where to prioritize the projects.
With a significant portion of our nation’s water moving through agricultural irrigation technologies, our industry is heavily dependent on a 21st century water infrastructure. Farmers depend on reliable sources of water to meet the demands of a growing population. Therefore, water infrastruc- ture is of critical importance to the irrigation industry. In many cases, today’s infrastructure is insufficient to meet the growing demands of our society, as much of the infrastructure was de- signed to accommodate a smaller population, lower economic activity and lower environmental regulations than we experi- ence today and expect to see in the future.
The blueprint the White House released in February eliminates the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to veto the Army Corps of Engineers’ wetlands permits in addition to proposing a two-year limit for agencies to issue final permitting decisions, including a strict 21-month limit on analyses done under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970.
It remains to be seen how Congress will consider Trump’s proposal, or if they will take up a comprehensive infrastructure package at all. With a price tag of $200 billion over 10 years and a significant reduction of environmental and regulatory protections, both Republicans and Democrats have expressed concerns of the plan as proposed.
Budget
President Trump’s fiscal year 2019 budget is out and calls for steep cuts to domestic programs, including many in the EPA, Department of Energy and USDA. Though the cuts don’t touch programs like EQIP, due to fact that EQIP funding is set at mandatory levels by the farm bill, other programs in research and nutrition face steep cuts in the Trump proposal.
Congress is set to debate the FY2019 appropriations level through this summer. With a deadline of Sept. 30 and a budget already passed, many on Capitol Hill are hoping to fund the government through the normal appropriations process, rather than an omnibus package and/or continuing resolutions, as we’ve seen in years past.
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