The National Grange presents the "Blueprint for Rural America 2006" as an outline of the Grange’s legislative priorities for 2006. The “Blueprint for Rural America” is reevaluated and revised annually to reflect Grange’s most up-to-date issues of concern and serves as a foundation on which the National Grange and local Grange grassroots legislative activities are based throughout the year. This year, it has outlined the Grange’s most current 5-point legislative plan that includes the issues of domestic agriculture programs, private property rights (eminent domain), telecommunications, energy and health.

On January 26, the National Grange has sent the “Blueprint for Rural America 2006” to President Bush with a cover letter from Bill Steel, President of National Grange, saying: “As you prepare to deliver the State of the Union Address this year, I would like you to review the Grange’s grassroots legislative priorities addressed in the Blueprint for Rural America 2006 and hope that you speak out on these issues in your Address.”

Following are excerpts from the “Blueprint for Rural America 2006”:

1. Extend Prosperity in U.S. Agriculture to Family Farmers and Ranchers

America’s family farmers and ranchers face critical challenges to maintain their prosperity. Nationwide, today‘s farmers are a highly diverse and constantly evolving group of entrepreneurs who differ greatly in the size of their operations, the products they produce, their ownership structure, their needs for capitol and financing, their use of farm labor, geographic location, environmental challenges, marketing decisions and annual revenues derived from their farming operations. Fewer than 15% of farms today are commercial scale, farming-only businesses. But these farms produce 75% of all domestic agricultural production. The remaining 85% or more of farmers in the United States rely on off farm employment to remain active in the agriculture sector. One factor that many farmers have in common is their age. A majority of the primary farm operators in the nation are over 55 years old and 35% of our farmers are over the age of 65. Federal farm programs should foster increased participation in the agricultural sector by encouraging the greatest participation of individuals and families within the sector as well as the broadest practical distribution of agricultural production in order to assure that today’s family farmers can retire with dignity and that their productive resources will be transferred to a new generation of farmers and rural entrepreneurs. Farm programs should reward innovative practices, encourage sound conservation techniques and facilitate the introduction of new technologies for all segments of the agriculture sector while protecting farmers from risks that are beyond their control or from the undue concentration of market power that restricts competition or entry into the agriculture sector.

2. Reform Eminent Domain Authority and Protect Private Property Rights

Property rights are central to our liberty and our economy. The Founders realized the fundamental importance of property rights when they codified the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, which requires that private property shall not be taken `for public use, without just compensation'. In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Kelo v. City of New London, abuse of eminent domain for the purpose of economic development is a threat to the property rights of all private property owners, including rural land owners. Rural lands are not traditionally considered high tax revenue-generating properties for state and local governments. Nevertheless, ownership rights in rural land are fundamental building blocks of our Nation's agriculture industry. Farmland and forest land owners need to have long-term certainty regarding their property rights in order to make the commit to invest in these properties. The use of eminent domain to take farmland and other rural property for economic development threatens liberty, the social fabric rural communities, and the economy of the United States. Americans should never have to fear their government would arbitrarily take their homes, farms, or businesses. Governments should not abuse the power of eminent domain to force rural property owners from their land in order to develop rural land into industrial and commercial property.

3. Expand Telecommunications Services in Rural Areas

Universal access to competitive telecommunications technologies such as telephone, cellular, wireless, television, radio, Internet, satellite and cable must be available to rural communities at affordable costs. The Internet delivers services and products efficiently, irrespective of geographic location. Telecommuters can enjoy rewarding careers and rural lifestyles, as well as conserve energy and reduce traffic congestion. Global position satellites improve productivity on America’s farms. Even with these benefits, we must protect children from inappropriate materials, we must prevent conglomerates from controlling multiple media venues, and we must reduce incidents of spam, Internet fraud and loss of privacy from these technologies.

4. Achieve Energy Securities for Rural America

Imported energy and high energy prices threaten the rural economy. In 2005, energy related costs forced some farmers to abandon crops in their fields. Forty percent of the nation’s fertilizer production capacity is shut down due to high natural gas prices and may never return. Renewable energy from our nation’s farms is underutilized. Proven reserves of domestic energy cannot be developed because of unscientific environmental prejudices while environmentally marginal “global warming” policies increase energy costs on agriculture and society with out benefit. Commodity futures markets for natural gas that were partially deregulated in the year 2000 are attracting Wall Street speculators who can make huge profits by attempting to influence the market price of natural gas by using techniques that would not be allowed in the agriculture commodities markets. Voluntary and effective energy conservation programs for rural areas, such as telecommuting, car/van pooling and affordable inter-community bus service, are under funded. Rural consumers, especially those served by rural electric cooperatives and public power utilities, must benefit from electricity restructuring, pricing and reliability programs along with other consumers.

5. Improve the Quality and Availability of Rural Health Care

Rural citizens need 100% tax deductions for all health and long-term care insurance, medical savings accounts, medical flexible spending accounts and competitive health insurance choices such as nationwide association health plans. Furthermore, we must preserve access to modern pharmaceutical technologies for all rural families. In particular, rural seniors are expecting that full implementation of the Medicare Part D program will provide a wide choice of affordable prescription drug benefits that meet their individual needs. For example, more U.S. farmers over the age of 65 will receive greater direct financial benefits from the Medicare Part D program than they will from traditional government commodity programs. Yet, health insurance and related health benefit programs have no value if there are no health care providers in rural areas. Rural health care providers face regulatory barriers when they seek equitable reimbursement for treatments provided under Medicare and Medicaid. Rural healthcare providers also bear a disproportionate financial burden from medical malpractice litigation. Small scale, private, provider owned “specialty” health care facilities that focus on treating a narrow range of ailments effectively could be a source of economic development in many rural communities as well as a means of offering consumers of medical services greater choice and more competition in the market. But these facilities are effectively banned under federal laws that favor giant corporate and “non-profit” hospitals and hospital chains that are designed to serve urban and suburban marketplaces.

To see the entire text of “Blueprint for Rural America 2006” please CLICK HERE

Supporting the development of all forms of domestic energy including natural gas is one of the National Grange’s legislative priority for energy issue. On January 27, the National Grange signed a joint letter to President Bush as a member organization of the Agriculture Energy Alliance (AEA) asking him to urge Congress to pass H.R. 4318 quickly that would allow expanded natural gas production in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).

The letter emphasized that the farm sector depends on significant amounts of natural gas for food processing, irrigation, crop drying, heating farm buildings and homes, and production of crop protection chemicals and nitrogen fertilizers. It says: “Anhydrous ammonia is the most widely used and the most energy intensive nitrogen fertilizer. Today, the cash cost of production is approximately $284 per ton when using a $8 price per mmBTU for the natural gas input. The natural gas component of this cost is approximately $264, or 93% of the total production cost. American farmers suffer everyday that the supply/demand situation remains unbalanced through lack of substantive policy changes… legislation opening up the OCS for production and development of natural gas supplies is an important step in expediting our country’s move toward energy independence”

Last year, the Grange criticized market manipulation and price gouging in the natural gas markets and asked Congress to reinstate the basic elements of Commodity Futures Trading Commission regulatory oversight of the natural gas market that were repealed in 2000.

On December 8 th 2005, the National Grange attended a conference sponsored by the New Millennium Research Council (NMRC). The conference explored the potential economic benefits to the nation from accelerated broadband deployment to elderly and disabled Americans. Speaking at the engagement was Robert Litan, a Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institute in Washington DC.

Mr. Litan’s report championed the accelerated deployment of broadband technology to the 70 million seniors and people with disabilities in America, and called this technology a “secret weapon” in reducing health care costs and kick starting the nation’s sluggish economy. In the study, Litan notes: “Three types of benefits from broadband deployment and use are addressed: lower medical costs; lower costs of institutionalized living; and additional output generated by more seniors and individuals with disabilities in the labor force. Considered together, these three benefits are estimated to accumulate to at least $927 billion in 2005…The amount is equivalent to half of what the United States currently spends annually for medical care for all its citizens ($1.8 trillion).”

Rural communities across the nation have a higher proportion of elderly and disabled residents and broadband technology is relatively an untapped resource for them. The National Grange fully supports the increased use and deployment of broadband technology in rural America understanding its positive influence on rural citizens. The Grange policy says: “The National Grange supports legislation to promote an integrated telecom­munications network to assure widely available, high quality telecommunica­tions to all of the nation’s users at a reasonable cost as was originally intended by the Communications Acts of 1934 and 1996. We further believe that access to affordable and reliable broadband Internet service is vital to preserving the quality of life in rural America.” The Grange will continue to monitor and support legislation that promotes affordable and reliable broadband Internet service in high cost areas of the nation such as rural areas.