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The proposal is similar to one proposed by the White House, but rejected by Congress, in 2005

WASHINGTON, DC - 02/13/06 - The White House is proposing to cut commodity subsidies to US farmers by 5% in the fiscal year beginning October 1.

The proposal was put forward as part of President Bush's recent budget request along with a plan to lower the cap on the amount a farmer could receive in a year from price- and income-support payments to $250,000 a year, down from the current annual cap of $360,000.

These proposals are similar to those proposed by the Bush administration a year ago - proposals that Congress did not enact.

Farm subsidies are one of the most contentious issues in long-stalled World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations.

In his fiscal year 2007 budget request to Congress, Bush also seeks to boost spending on food aid to poor countries to $1.3 billion.

All food aid would be provided through the "Title II" program for emergency food aid targeted to the world's most food-insecure countries.

The Administration wants to discontinue the "Title I" program that specifies conditions for sales of food for a recipient country's currency with proceeds to be used within that country.

The proposals are contained in Bush's $19.7 billion request for US Department of Agriculture (USDA) discretionary spending for fiscal year 2007.

Discretionary spending currently represents nearly one-third of the entire USDA budget request for fiscal year 2007.

The proposed 2007 discretionary budget is estimated to be close to $2 billion less than the amount Congress authorized for 2006.

The president's budget proposal represents the first phase of a long, complex legislative process likely to take most of the year. All spending legislation must be passed by Congress and signed by the president and the amounts actually appropriated by Congress can vary significantly from the president's request.

The proposed USDA budget would provide $82 million for its efforts to work with states to improve preparedness and response plans for avian influenza - or bird flu - and to monitor domestic and wild birds, suspected carriers of bird flu.

It would allocate $85 million for the development of renewable energy resources and energy-efficient technologies and improved energy transmission.

The Administration is placing a high priority on initiatives to develop renewable energy technologies, including projects devoted to developing energy systems from biomass, wind, solar and geothermal sources, as well as hydrogen fuel systems.

In all, the request includes $322 million for the Food and Agriculture Defense Initiative The cost would be part of the overall amount Bush has requested for government-wide efforts to improve the safety and security of the US food supply.

The increased funding for food defense would support enhanced surveillance of animals and plants in order to detect pest and disease threats.

It would be used to help improve the capability of laboratories to provide detection and screening tests for potentially contaminated food products, provide testing capacity if the need surges and support information exchanges between labs and surveillance personnel.

The funding would also support research to ensure food safety, including identifying pathogens, developing improved animal vaccines and building better understanding genes that provide disease resistance.

It would increase to $248 million funding for the agriculture portion of the administration's initiative to research ways the US can be more competitive in the global economy.

The budget includes $227 million to the US Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) to help expand and maintain export opportunities by monitoring and enforcing existing trade agreements, support international economic development and capacity building and improve worldwide sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) systems.

According to the most recent FDA figures, the value of US farm exports last year totaled $64.5 billion, up from $62.4 billion in 2004.

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Korea, US Free Trade Pact ''Possible'' by Early 2007

WASHINGTON, DC – 10/25/06 – A free trade pact between the US and South Korea could become a reality by early 2007, says chief US negotiator Wendy Cutler at the opening of this week’s fourth round of talks between the two countries; since the two sides launched FTA negotiations in February they have reported little progress even though they postponed consideration of the most politically sensitive issues, such as US access to the Korean rice market.