Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley said Wednesday that he thinks senators will push for a tighter cap on farm payments this fall, which could stimulate political good will among urban lawmakers for the next farm bill.
Sen. Chuck Grassley talks about federal farm policy problems during the Agricultural Policy Summit at Iowa State University on Wednesday.
"I've sensed that the majority of the Senate feels strongly about doing this," Grassley said in a phone interview with Iowa agriculture reporters.
Grassley will join U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns today for a forum on the 2007 farm bill at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines. Johanns has been holding sessions around the country to hear what farmers think does and doesn't work in farm policy.
As part of the budget reconciliation process, Congress must cut $173 million from the Agriculture Department budget for next year and about $3 billion over the next five years. Tweaking the payment cap rules would solve the budget issue without affecting other USDA programs. And Grassley said a tougher payment cap could go a long way toward earning some needed political good will for farmers in Washington.
"If they do work, it will benefit the taxpayers by saving more money," Grassley said of the caps. "It will benefit agriculture by having more urban support for the farm bill in the future."
Payments currently are limited to $360,000 per farm entity. Larger farmers get around the limit by creating separate entities or family spinoffs to draw more payments. In debate for the last farm bill, Grassley pushed for a hard $275,000 per-farm cap that was defeated.
Grassley said a cap proposal does have the support of the White House.
While neither the House nor the Senate has detailed another proposal for the cuts, a payment cap also would eliminate any discussion about making cuts to USDA nutritional programs.
"It would also relieve us of any necessity of cutting funds for food stamps if we can get a strong, hard cap on payments," Grassley said.
A poll released last month by the Kellogg Foundation found that two-thirds of voters surveyed in Iowa, Kansas and Minnesota supported a $250,000 payment cap. The same poll showed roughly the same percentage of opposition to cutting food-stamp programs.
Grassley acknowledged that payment caps are strongly opposed by rice and cotton farmers, who primarily are in Southern states and who draw larger crop subsidies than Midwest grain farmers. The chairmen of both the Senate and House Agriculture Committees are "from that part of the country," Grassley noted.
"That's going to make it a tremendously difficult obstacle to overcome, particularly in the House of Representatives."
U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, said last week during a visit to Nebraska that he opposes any attempts to reopen the 2002 farm bill to enact limits on farm payments. Goodlatte said the $173 million allotted for farm payments is only a small part of the USDA budget. Cuts could be made elsewhere, he said.Omaha World-Herald
