Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, on Thursday 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.”
“For years we’ve seen big farms get bigger while small and mid-sized family farmers in Ohio get squeezed,” Brown said. “Too often, farm program payments have gone to producers who do not need the support, or to people who aren’t even involved in farming. With this commonsense bill we can ensure assistance is directed toward working Ohio farmers.”
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.
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NAFB/Sen. Chuck Grassley
