Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002

Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002

Long title	An Act to provide for the continuation of agricultural programs through fiscal year 2007, and for other purposes.
Nicknames	2002 U.S. Farm Bill Agricultural Act of 2001
Enacted by	the 107th United States Congress
Effective	May 13, 2002
Citations
Public law	107–171
Statutes at Large	116 Stat. 134 through 116 Stat. 540 (406 pages)
Legislative history
Introduced in the House of Representatives as H.R. 2646 by Larry Combest (R-TX) on July 26, 2001 Committee consideration by Agriculture, International Relations Passed the House of Representatives on October 5, 2001 (291–120) Passed the Senate as the Agriculture, Conservation, and Rural Enhancement Act of 2002 on February 13, 2002 (58–40) Reported by the joint conference committee on May 1, 2002; agreed to by the House of Representatives on May 2, 2002 (280–141) and by the Senate on May 8, 2002 (64–35) Signed into law by President George W. Bush on May 13, 2002

The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, also known as the 2002 Farm Bill, includes ten titles, addressing a great variety of issues related to agriculture, ecology, energy, trade, and nutrition. This act has been superseded by the 2007 U.S. Farm Bill.

The act directs approximately 16.5 billion dollars of funding toward agricultural subsidies each year.^[1] These subsidies have a dramatic effect on the production of grains, oilseeds, and upland cotton. The specialized nature of the farm bill, as well as the size and timing of the bill, made its passage highly contentious.

Debated in the U.S. House of Representatives during the immediate aftermath of the September 11th attacks in 2001, the bill drew criticism from the White House and was nearly amended. The amendment, which failed by a close margin, was proposed by Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) and would have shifted money away from grain subsidies to conservation measures. Public debate over the farm bill continued, and the Senate proposed sweeping amendments to the bill, leading to a series of meetings from February through April. As a result, the current farm bill was not passed until May 2002, a few weeks after the 1996 farm bill had already expired.