Only a couple of members of Congress are known as active farmers — Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Jon Tester of Montana — but 32 current lawmakers have received farm subsidies, according to the Environmental Working Group database, which covers payments since 1995. The EWG says that Rep. Doug LaMalfa of California received the largest cumulative amount, $1.7 million, and Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado the smallest, $69.
After LaMalfa, the largest recipients were Grassley and Reps. David Valadao of California, Devin Nunes of California, Kristi Noem of South Dakota, and Ralph Abraham of Louisiana, said the EWG. Most of the 32 lawmakers grew crops that are eligible for crop insurance, but “these subsidies are not disclosed to the public,” the group said.
When it recently updated its database with 2015 and 2016 data, the EWG said material showed that large operators get the lion’s share of payments. Farm supports are paid by the bushel or pound of production, so larger-volume farms get bigger payments. “The top 10 percent of subsidy recipients collected 77 percent of farm subsidies between 1995 and 2016,” said the EWG. Farmers in six states — Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Illinois, Kansas, and North Dakota, the leading corn, wheat, and soybean states — “received more than half of all farm subsidies and crop insurance indemnities,” it said.
The EWG farm subsidy database is available here.