The USDA will reduce farm subsidy payments by 6.8 percent “across the board, regardless of when they [farmers] came into the office,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The department mulled for several weeks how to apply budget cuts that are required under spending caps. For a while, different percentages, from 6.8 to 7.3 percent, were considered for the 2014, 2015 and 2016 crops. Analysts questioned if different rates would apply if growers registered before or after the Oct. 1 start of this fiscal year.
Sequestration was approved by Congress in 2011 as a mechanism to pare federal spending. The USDA will begin making payments in coming weeks for 2014 crops.