McMorris favors steep ag cuts

U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Spokane, told the Gazette Tuesday she intends to vote for House Republicans’ proposed cuts to the current fiscal year’s budget which include steep cuts in agriculture funding.

“The stakes are just too high to maintain the status quo,” said McMorris Rodgers. “We’re all going to have to make some sacrifices to reduce our debt and get the economy moving.”

The reductions are included in $100 billion of cuts in an upcoming Continuing Resolution bill to fund the federal government for the remaining seven months in this fiscal year.

Included in the cuts are $201 million from the Farm Service Agency, $46 million from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, $237 million from rural development programs and $246 million from agricultural research. An additional $544 million in international food aid grants is also on the chopping block and $25 million for state and local air quality management.

Many of the programs are of importance to Whitman County farmers and communities.

McMorris Rodgers noted her tour last August of the newly-remodeled library building in Colfax. The $1 million project was funded primarily through funding from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development program.

“These programs have been important to our communities, and I do think they have produced a great deal of value,” she said. “But I think the federal government needs to shift its role and begin finding those resources from non-governmental agencies.”