DC Talking Points October, 2007 Farm Bill Update With the House version of the Farm Bill complete, the Senate is now on deck to develop their version of the bill.  The Senate Ag Committee will wait for the Finance Committee to act first, and will likely mark up their version of the bill at the end of October.  There has been some talk on the Hill about using the Continuing Resolution as a vehicle to extend Farm Bill programs for a short period of time (for example, a month-long extension).  2007 Program Update Fiscal Year 2007 program obligations were as follows: * Environmental Quality Incentive Program obligated approximately $10.9 million, * Wetland Reserve Program obligated about $9.5 million, * Wetland Habitat Incentive Program obligated about $416,000, and * Conservation Security Program payments for prior year contracts amounted to approximately $8.7 million. Communication As a partner, you may have received information in the past through the ‘NRCS Employees’ e-mail distribution list.  This list has been updated to contain only NRCS employees.  NRCS has a second e-mail distribution list dedicated to partners, and will share information with partners through this list, as well as through the IASWCD Weekly Updates.  We are also able to work with our partners’ distribution lists to get information directly to ISDA employees and directly to all SWCDs as needed.  We will be making sure we utilize all available communication tools when Partnership messages need to be distributed. Additional EQIP Livestock Funds On Tuesday night, September 11, Indiana NRCS was notified that they would be receiving an additional $100,000 in EQIP funds to enable temporary intensive grazing for livestock in corn or soybean fields while maintaining environmental sustainability.  Indiana NRCS had three days to address these resource concerns utilizing the additional funds, by Friday September 14.  Thanks to all of the partnership employees, we were able to successfully assist producers in need with these additional funds by the deadline.  A big thank you goes out to everyone who helped with this effort.  This temporary grazing will also be allowed with ’08 EQIP dollars through a waiver that allows work to begin prior to the award of an EQIP contract.  New Board Diversity Fact Sheet NRCS, in cooperation with NACD and the National Association of RC&Ds, have developed a fact sheet on the importance of Board Diversity (attached).  The fact sheet is available at http://directives.sc.egov.usda.gov/media/pdf/NB_230_7_9_a.pdf.