WASHINGTON, D.C. Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, have introduced a bill to limit farm bill payments.
The Farm Program Integrity Act would create a hard cap of $250,000 in total commodity support for any one farm operation and require beneficiaries of the system spend at least 50 percent of each year engaged in farm labor or management. Currently, just 10 percent of farm operations receive 70 percent of all yearly farm payment subsidies.
“It isn’t right to send bloated farm payments to people who are more familiar with an office chair than a tractor seat,” Grassley said. “This bill brings honesty to the farm payment system and prioritizes farming families over mega farms. Hard-earned tax dollars should only be sent to hard-working farmers – those with calluses on their hands and dirt under their fingernails.”
Thirty-three members of Congress and their immediate family members collected a total of nearly $16 million in federal farm subsidies between 1995 and 2020, according to updated data from Environmental Working Group (EWG) Farm Subsidy Database. According to EWG, Grassley was among lawmakers or their families who received between $100,000 and about $400,000 in subsidies and/or MFP payments. Lawmakers who received commodity subsidies are also eligible for crop insurance subsidies and a host of other farm welfare programs. But because those other subsidies are not disclosed to the public, it’s not possible to determine whether some legislators are “double dipping.”
The Farm Program Integrity Act is supported by Taxpayers for Common Sense, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, R Street Institute, U.S. Public Interest Research Group, National Taxpayer Union, Environmental Working Group, Farm Action Fund, Regenerate America, Kiss the Ground and the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association.
The full text of the legislation can be found HERE and a summary can be found HERE.
