Senate Ag Committee Ranking Member Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture Ranking Member Sam Brownback, R-Kan., wrote a letter to Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack Wednesday urging USDA to take deficit reduction seriously. The Senators say they openly question why USDA would require flexibility from the Office of Management and Budget to cut mandatory farm safety net programs to meet discretionary funding reductions. They say honest budgeting requires discretionary savings come from reductions to discretionary programs and they believe the President's proposed budget for the 2012 fiscal year should be based on honest budgeting.

In their letter, Chambliss and Brownback note discretionary and mandatory programs in regard to USDA's budget increased 7% and 20% respectively over the previous two fiscal years. They state nutrition, feeding and food safety programs are significant portions of outlays for mandatory and discretionary accounts, but conservation, rural development and other discretionary functions received an approximated 15% increase this fiscal year compared to the previous one.

The Senators note farmers and ranchers need a level of certainty to operate. They say the time to examine and make changes to mandatory programs is during the upcoming reauthorization of the farm bill.