Conservation groups today called on House members to reject a stand-alone drought aid bill that proposes to dip into two of the farming community's largest conservation programs to fund increases in disaster assistance.

The legislation will be voted on tomorrow in place of a one-year farm bill extension and comes amid growing calls for lawmakers to do something to help farmers and ranchers cope with the drought before they head home for a five-week recess. House leaders had originally planned to tie drought relief to the extension but dropped the plan abruptly yesterday, punting work on the farm bill until after the August recess.

In a letter that went to all House members, conservation groups today warned that reductions in farm conservation included in the stand-alone drought bill would only further exacerbate drought conditions. The cuts to the conservation programs total $639 million over the next decade, according to a Congressional Budget Office scoring.

"Using disproportionate cuts to conservation to fund disaster assistance undermines the successful conservation programs that are currently being utilized," the coalition of 16 conservation groups wrote. "Disproportionately cutting conservation dollars to pay for disaster aid is shortsighted, and the long-term investment in conservation should not be usurped by the short-term thinking to address severe drought."

The legislation would cut $350 million, or 20 percent, in mandatory funding from the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, a cost-share program that provides help to farmers for making environmental improvements. It would cut 26 percent, or $289 million, from the Conservation Stewardship Program, a program that awards farmers on a tiered basis for stewardship activities.

The reductions more than offset an increased $383 million that the bill provides in emergency assistance to farmers and ranchers struggling with the drought in the Midwest. The emergency assistance comes in the form of the reauthorization of several livestock disaster policies that expired in September 2011.

In all, the drought relief bill would cut direct spending by $256 million over the next decade, according to the CBO score.

Conservation groups said the decreases were neither fair nor equitable.

"We need Congress to act now to provide aid to ranchers in need, but this should not a choice between robbing Peter and paying Paul," said Julie Sibbing, director of agriculture and forestry at the National Wildlife Federation.

A summary of the legislation provided by House Agriculture Committee spokeswoman Tamara Hinton said the conservation offsets "are consistent with levels previously established by enacted appropriations -- which reduced levels authorized by the Agriculture Committees -- and will still allow these important programs to function at recent funding levels."

The cuts proposed to EQIP are the same as those included in the proposed House and Senate fiscal 2013 agriculture appropriations bills. The cut to the Conservation Stewardship Program, on the other hand, would be about twice as large as that proposed in the House agriculture appropriations bill. The Senate-passed appropriations bill would not cut the Conservation Stewardship Program in fiscal 2013.

The House agriculture appropriations bill has stalled on the House floor, while the Senate version passed earlier this year.

The situation is similar with the $960 billion five-year farm bill that passed the House Agriculture Committee three weeks ago: Disagreements over funding for nutrition assistance and how to extend commodity subsidies have halted the bill's progress on the House floor.

House leaders announced Friday that they would push a one-year extension of the farm bill instead of the larger legislation. The extension also earned scorn from conservation groups (E&E Daily, July 31).

House leaders now plan to bring the stand-alone drought bill to the floor tomorrow under suspension of the rules, meaning it would require a two-thirds vote for passage. No amendments would be allowed.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) this morning said he filed a similar drought bill on the Senate side. In a floor speech, he said that in the absence of action on the House side on the full five-year farm bill, it was necessary to move on a separate drought measure.

"It is deeply disturbing that the House has not voted on a farm bill and sent it to conference, and I urge them to act on this quickly," Merkley said. "Without these key disaster relief programs, farmers and ranchers that have lost grazing lands are left with few options."

House Agriculture Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) said yesterday that his priority remained passing a five-year farm bill but that farmers and ranchers required immediate assistance to help with the drought. It is unlikely, though, that a drought measure would be passed into law before the lawmakers leave for recess.