Congress is expected to send President Trump a farm bill this week that makes nieces, nephews and first cousins of farmers eligible for crop subsidies, a setback in the decades-old drive to control farm spending. Farm groups learned of the decision ahead of the formal release of the final version of the bill. House and Senate negotiators signed the so-called conference report on Monday, the first step toward a final vote on the $87 billion-a-year bill.
Three-quarters of farm bill spending goes to food stamps. The House-Senate compromise bill rejects the House Republican proposal for “work capable” people aged 18-59 to work at least 20 hours a week or spend equivalent time in job training or workfare. The top farm-bill priority of farm groups was maintenance of a strong, taxpayer-supported crop insurance program. Neither the House nor Senate touched crop insurance, despite expectations it would be a target for reformers.
Instead, the Senate backed tighter subsidy limits that would have allowed only one “manager” per farm to collect payments; the House voted to make nieces, nephews and first cousins eligible for up to $125,000 a year in subsidies and to remove payment limits from some types of corporate farms. The House and Senate negotiators opted to loosen the eligibility rules. The step was defended as a way to diversity the structure of farming at a time of high operating costs and a farm population that is aging and shrinking.
“It is yet another way to ensure the nation’s largest farms collect unlimited subsidies every year,” said Ferd Hoefner of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, a small-farm advocate. Big operators can use large payments to out-bid family farmers and beginning farmers for equipment and land, say proponents of tighter limits. “It’s a way to ensure farm consolidation continues,” Hoefner said.
“The chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, Rep. Michael K. Conaway … says this is a way to keep new generations of younger people involved in farming, and his concern has carried the day,” said the Washington Post editorial board. It said “the extension of taxpayer largesse to extended families would be a step backward in the long-term fight for incremental rationalization of agriculture policy.”
To be eligible for crop supports, people must provide land, equipment or capital and either labor or active management. There is no firm definition of management, however. Auditors have found instances of large operations with a dozen of more people listed as managers.
Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, author of the Senate language to restrict subsidies to farmers, their spouses and one manger per farm, was undecided last week whether to vote for or against the farm bill.
The Environmental Working Group said the expanded list of relatives eligible for subsidies amounted to “found money for absentee landlords and city slicker relatives, courtesy of taxpayers. This looks like a bill written by the creators of Ancestory.com, not members of Congress who claim to represent family farmers.”
The House was expected to vote first on the farm bill, possibly on Wednesday or Thursday, with the Senate to follow quickly. President Trump is expected to sign the bill despite criticizing it for not toughening work requirements for SNAP.