03/08/05 Chance for specialty crop funding?

Chris Schlect of the Northwest Horticultural Council will be the first to admit that there is very little chance that funding for the recently passed Specialty Crop Competitiveness Act will be part of the fiscal year 2006 federal budget. After all, the President's proposed budget is calling for across the board cuts in ag programs. SCHLECT: I don't think the President's budget included the somewhere around $45 million that was allowed in the bill that was passed last fall and signed by the President for specialty crops. That money was in the bill but it wasn't appropriated and it's up to the Congress or in the President's requested appropriations this year. But Schlect says that does not mean the Northwest Hort Council and other specialty crop organizations won't make the effort to convince Congress to appropriate some, if not all, of the intended funding level this year. But then again, this may be the start of a long term push towards make funding not just a discretionary appropriation every year, but a consistent funding mechanism. SCHLECT: The United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association, and the other groups that are working on this do want to see that money added in. And over time, I think realistically this is going to have to be sorted out in the Farm Bill debate that's going to go on starting this year and probably won't conclude for another two years, because Congress will have to sort out how they apply money to traditional crops versus the produce industry.