"Now more than ever, Michigan needs a fighter that will put partisanship aside and stay focused on creating jobs in Michigan's new economy. That is why Debbie Stabenow is my choice for U.S. Senate."
Stabenow moves forward with agriculture cuts as supercommittee fails
November 23, 2011
Washington— Over the past two months, as the 12 supercommittee members struggled in vain to reach a deficit-cutting accord, other congressional committees also were looking hard at their own programs to identify possible savings.
"We took this process very seriously," said Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, head of the Senate Agriculture Committee. She reached out to the panel's highest-ranking Republican, Frank Lucas of Oklahoma, and their counterparts in the House Agriculture Committee to draft a joint set of bipartisan recommendations which they made to the supercommittee.
Together, they came up with $23 billion in spending cuts over 10 years on farm programs, more than any of the other recent deficit-reduction efforts. More importantly, the recommendations would eliminate direct payments.
"They're agricultural payments that go to farmers in good times or bad, unlike crop payments," Stabenow said in an interview.