With USDA sending $1 billion a week to farmers, senior Democrats on the House Agriculture Committee argued on Monday for Congress to give the agency an early infusion of cash to keep trade war payments flowing to farm country. The House is scheduled to vote this week on a short-term government funding bill that may include money for aid to agriculture, the only sector of the U.S. economy to get a trade-war bailout.
“We cannot and will not allow our farmers to be used as political pawns,” said House Agriculture chairman Collin Peterson of Minnesota and two subcommittee chairmen, Filemon Vela of Texas and Jim Costa of California, in a statement. “Although we mutually have concerns with President Trump’s approach to trade negotiations, we refuse to engage in the same tactics that punish our constituents and harm our communities that rely on agriculture.”
The Trump administration has offered up to $7.25 billion in so-called Market Facilitation Program payments to producers this summer to offset trade losses. Some $4.07 billion has been disbursed since payments began on Aug. 21, an average of $1 billion a week. The USDA said it has processed 302,397 applications as of Monday. Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Indiana were the leading states for payments.
Last week, the chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee circulated a stopgap bill to keep the government running until Nov 21. Congress is unlikely to meet the Oct. 1 deadline to enact appropriations bills for all government agencies. The House draft was silent on funds for USDA’s Commodity Credit Corp, the source of trade-war payments to producers. The CCC can spend up to $30 billion at a time and Congress usually refills its account each Oct. 1. The White House has requested early access to the funds.
A senior Democratic aide said the CCC money was likely to be part of the short-term bill, reported the Washington Post. “The aide, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of official release of the bill, said additional provisions were being negotiated to ensure accountability and transparency of the program.”
When USDA rolled out a $3 billion disaster-relief package a week ago, administrator Richard Fordyce of the Farm Service Agency said, “We’re monitoring this (CCC funding) closely. I think we’re comfortable where we are today.” A USDA spokesperson was not immediately available on Monday to discuss CCC funding levels.
While Trump tariff payments are appreciated by farmers, “it doesn’t make up for it (lost income),” said a National Pork Producers Council official last week. The farm group estimated the trade war cost hog farmers $20 a head; the USDA is paying $11 a head this year.
Other farm groups have similar views. Trade payments are welcome but removal of tit-for-tat tariffs and restoration of trade flows would be better, they have said repeatedly.