Open Space and Farmland Preservation Act

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5313) to reserve a small percentage of the amounts made available to the Secretary of Agriculture for the farmland protection program to fund challenge grants to encourage the purchase of conservation easements and other interests in land to be held by a State agency, county, or other eligible entity, and for other purposes.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, urban sprawl continues to threaten the Nation's farmland. Social and economic changes over the past three decades have influenced the rate at which land is converted to nonagricultural uses. Population growth, demographic changes, preferences for larger lots, expansion of transportation systems, and economic prosperity have contributed to increases in agricultural land conversion rates.

The amount of farmland lost to development is not the only significant concern. Another cause for concern is the quality and pattern of farmland being converted. In most States, prime farmland is being converted at two to four times the rate of other, less-productive agricultural land.

There continues to be an important national interest in the protection of farmland. Land use devoted to agriculture provides an important contribution to meeting the Nation's food and fiber needs, environmental quality, protection of the Nation's historical and archeological resources and scenic beauty.

The farmland protection program is administered by NRCS and provides funds to State, tribal, and local governments and nongovernmental organizations to help them purchase conservation easements from willing sellers to limit conversion of farmland to nonagricultural uses.

The farmland protection program has received funding applications for 300 percent more dollars than the program was appropriated. The result in fiscal year 2005 was $262 million in unfunded projects. There simply weren't enough Federal dollars to match the number of applications to preserve farmland.

H.R. 5313, the Open Space and Farmland Preservation Challenge Grant Act, was introduced to aid in reducing the number of unfunded projects. Currently, the farmland protection program provides up to a 50 percent Federal match on these easement projects. By lowering the Federal match on a small portion of farmland protection program funding, we believe that less Federal funds can be used to protect more land.

The bill before us today, H.R. 5313, amends the Farm Security Act of 1985 to set aside 15 percent of farmland protection funds for cost- share grants, 25 percent maximum Federal share, to support eligible State agencies, county, and one or more eligible entities, local government or private entities, to purchase conservation easements.

This bill allows Federal dollars to go further by lowering the Federal match fund to a maximum of 25 percent and allowing other entities to make up the other 75 percent. States where the State, county, and local grassroots effort is strong can make better use of increasingly limited dollars. For example, Pennsylvania, which has great grassroots efforts to protect farmland, had the most unfunded easement applications, 65 for fiscal year 2005, which accounted for 6,200 acres not being able to be put into this program. By being able to use these reserved funds, more acres, with help from more groups, can be protected.

There is no new spending authorized in this bill. It simply creates a set-aside out of existing Federal farmland protection dollars. Any funds not used will go back into the general disbursement of farmland protection funds.

Madam Speaker, obviously, it is in this country's best interests to protect some of its great farmland. This program is immensely popular in many States, proven by the numbers of applications for the program each year. States like Connecticut, with $14 million in projects that could not be funded; Maryland had $17 million; Michigan, $22 million; New Hampshire, $15 million; Ohio, $12 million; and Pennsylvania, $20 million. This bill gives States that have tremendous grassroots organizations the ability to protect more farmland with less Federal money.

I would like to thank the ranking member of the committee, Congressman Peterson, for working with us on this matter, as well as Congressman Gerlach, who introduced the measure, and Congressman Tim Holden, a member of the committee, from Pennsylvania, who has legislation addressing this issue.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Gerlach) 3 minutes.

Madam Speaker, at this time, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Kirk).

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, at this time I yield to my friend, the majority leader, Mr. Boehner, for the purposes of inquiring about the schedule for the week to come.

I thank the gentleman for that information. To clarify, am I correct that the three bills that you mentioned prior to the mentioning of the last conference report, the NIH authorization bill, the Open Space and Farmland Preservation Act, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Modernization Reform Act, am I correct they will all be suspension bills?

I thank the gentleman.

On the schedule, last week we talked about the 29th being the target date, and that we were going to get out on the 29th. But that being Friday, we might go over to Saturday if we did not finish on Friday, and we have advised Members to make sure that their Saturday schedule was flexible to accommodate that. But can you clarify that additionally as to what your thoughts are and the possibility of being here on Saturday?

I yield to my friend.

I thank the gentleman for that information.

It reminds me that before we had a court of appeals opinion in Maryland, before I went to the Senate, constitutionally you had a 90- day session, but as you point out, on the last day you weren't quite sure how long that last day would be.

I hear you. I will advise our Members not to have Friday night planes scheduled, and to have maybe a little later Saturday scheduled, maybe well into the morning.

November is when we will next reconvene, it is my understanding. You previously indicated that after we have our last votes, the House will not be in session again until Monday, November 13. Is that still your intention?

I yield to my friend.

What can you tell us about the rest of the November and December schedule so that Members might be planning for that as well? Are we likely to have votes on Friday, the 17th, for example; and what about the following week and Thanksgiving week?

I thank the gentleman for that information. We understand it has to be tentative, and we understand that the leader cannot anticipate exactly what will and will not pass within certain time frames. We appreciate sort of the ballpark estimate of what would be available for time if we need it.

You have not noted, but there has been a lot of talk about tax- related legislation and speculation as to whether or not we will consider any tax or trade-related legislation, for example, the tax extenders, prior to leaving for the elections. It is not on your schedule. Do you have any expectation that we would be considering prior to the election, not after the election but prior to, any tax legislation, extenders or otherwise?

You do not. Thank you.

There is noted on the calendar a bill which is the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act. Would it be your expectation there would be any other legislation prior to the election dealing with that subject, abortion?

I thank you for that.

You mentioned we are going to have, and you are going to try to pass a rule, I suppose, to give you suspension authority all of next week. Are there any other bills that you are contemplating bringing up under suspension? You noted the three that we discussed. Are there any others?

I yield to my friend.

It is a challenge, isn't it, Mr. Leader?

I thank the gentleman. I understand there are a lot of bills that are possible, and we appreciate that fact and appreciate his working with us to try to accommodate Members on both sides.

Two last things. Mr. Goodlatte and Mr. Peterson have been very concerned, as you know, about the drought and the stress that many of our farmers in rural areas of our country have been experiencing. There has been a lot of discussion about assistance that we could give. Is there any contemplation that next week we might be able to consider an emergency disaster assistance bill, H.R. 5099, that will help our farmers and ranchers who have been badly hurt by floods, droughts and other natural disasters?

I appreciate that.

The last question will not come as a surprise to you, I know. We still have yet to pass one appropriation bill.

We have passed the others, but it is still out there. It is a large bill that deals with the education of our children, the health of our people, and the ability of our working people to succeed. I know that there is great attention being given to that bill. We are hopeful that it will come to the floor, and we are hopeful when it comes to the floor, there will be an opportunity to vote up or down on increasing the minimum wage over a period of time. Is there any hope or expectation that that bill might come to the floor?

I thank the gentleman. Reclaiming my time, we would hope that you would continue to consider that.

I thank my colleague from Maryland for yielding.

Next week, Mr. Speaker, the House will convene on Monday at 12:30 for morning hour and 2 p.m. for legislative business. No votes will occur before 6:30 on Monday evening. We will have a number of measures considered under suspension of the rules. We will have a final list of those bills to Members' offices by tomorrow afternoon.

For the balance of the week, the House will consider H.R. 6054, the Military Commissions Act; H.R. 5825, the Electronic Surveillance Modernization Act; H.R. 748, the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act; H.R. 2679, the Public Expression of Religion Act; H.R. 5631, Department of Defense appropriations conference report; the National Institutes of Health reauthorization bill; H.R. 5313, Open Space and Farmland Preservation Act; and H.R. 5092, the BATFE Modernization and Reform Act of 2006.

In addition to that, I would note that a conference report may be brought up at any time, and I expect to see H.R. 5122, the Sonny Montgomery National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 conference report.

In addition to these, we do hope to have suspension authority for all of next week to try to accommodate Members who have suspension items on both sides of the aisle. It is expected that there will be many suspensions next week, and I want to prepare Members for that.

Likely they will.

I thank my colleague for yielding.

I have told Members and have told you for months that we will be finished on the 29th. We will be finished on the 29th. Now, how long the 29th lasts, I don't know. But I would expect that we would be here on the evening of the 29th and hopefully not much longer than that.

If the gentleman would yield, we have both been here long enough to know that that last day before the recess for the election lasts a little longer than an average day.

It is.

I would expect that we would have votes all that week, including the 17th. But once you get beyond there, it really is unclear as to when we will be back. I have been working with the Senate leadership trying to come to some understanding. We have not come to any agreement or understanding. But I can say this. If we cannot complete our work by Thanksgiving, which in my view is doubtful, that the House would be off the week of Thanksgiving and the following week and would come back the week of December 4 for a week or two to finish our business.

I think that is the most realistic schedule that I see. Is it firm? Nowhere close. But in terms of trying to be helpful to Members as they plan, that is as helpful as I can be with the knowledge that I have today.

I do not.

I am not sure that there is any definitive answer on that. We do have this interstate notification bill up next week. There was some consideration to the unborn child pain bill that some Members have been hoping to get up. At this point I do not expect to have it on the floor next week. But at this point that is as much information as I have.

Which of the several hundred bills that Members have asked me to bring to the floor next week would you like to know about?

If the gentleman would yield, we are working with Members on both sides of the aisle who have issues that have been through committee or are almost through committee that they would like to bring to the floor. As typically happens, I and my staff will work closely with you and your staff to schedule those so everyone has fair notice and we have gone through the usual scrubbing process.

I am not familiar with the bill, but I will be happy to take a look at it.

That's right. We are still talking about it.

The gentleman is aware there are some problems with the bill. We have been having conversations about trying to solve those problems. I don't expect it to be on the floor next week.

With regard to raising the minimum wage, the House did, in fact, vote on that in late July. We sent it to the Senate where it remains under consideration.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5313, the Open Space and Farmland Preservation Act, a bill I introduced to strengthen the Federal Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program.

Under the bill, 15 percent of the funds made available for the program would be reserved in order to make challenge

grants available to preserve the most threatened farmland, farmland in States, counties, municipalities, or private entities all agree are vital to preserve.

Simply put, if a State contributes 25 percent, a county contributes 25 percent, and a municipality or private entity contributes 25 percent towards the preservation of eligible farmland, the effort would then be eligible for a 25 percent Federal match.

I know that every, State, county, and municipality's commitment to farmland preservation is different, but it is my hope that creating this challenge grant will encourage more efforts at these levels of government.

States like Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania's counties and municipalities have invested heavily in preserving farmland. The challenge grant created through H.R. 5313 would only help to encourage other States in more local municipalities to follow this example and compete for Federal dollars available through the challenge grant.

I also believe that this challenge grant will steer Federal resources towards those projects already getting wide support from counties, States, and municipalities, or private organizations. This ensures that the increasingly limited Federal resources are being used to preserve the most threatened farmland.

This is an important measure that will help preserve farmland and open space in suburban and exurban communities. For residents of these areas like my constituents in Pennsylvania's Sixth Congressional District, preservation of open space and farmland is a quality of life issue that can not be overlooked.

I want to thank Chairman Goodlatte and his staff for their efforts in bringing this bill to the floor today, as well as the efforts of Ranking Member Peterson. I would also like to thank my colleague, Congressman Mark Kirk of Illinois, for his foresight and leadership in the creation of the Suburban Agenda Caucus. His efforts and the efforts of the leaders of the Caucus have helped shed light on the issues that those of us in the suburban communities care deeply about.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5313, the Open Space and Farmland Preservation Act.

Madam Speaker, I want to thank Congressman Jim Gerlach for his leadership for the entire Nation in protecting suburban green and open space.

Now, we all support the National Park System, and I believe the next President should set a goal of doubling the National Park System. But we also need to take action to protect more green and open space near home.

Without this bill, more green and open space would disappear in an unending series of strip malls. In my own district, we just set aside 77 acres of Lake Michigan shoreline as part of a new park to preserve habitat for all time. But we need to do more.

Under Congressman Gerlach's leadership, this bill became part of our bipartisan suburban agenda to meet the education, health care, conservation and economic needs of suburban families. This bill advances those needs by making sure that we preserve more green and open space in the suburbs.

In my own State of Illinois, we are losing over 41,000 acres of farmland to development, 71 percent in suburban areas. The rate of farmland loss in our State has increased over 130 percent in the 1990s. This bill directly meets that need, and I want to thank Chairman Goodlatte for moving this legislation that makes sure that suburban families have more green and open space near home.