The USDA has a “glaring loophole” in its farm subsidy rules that allows people to collect up to $125,000 a year in subsidies for providing farm management, said Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, who is trying to get a tougher set of rules into law. During a teleconference on Tuesday, Grassley said, “I’m going to have to try very hard” to prevail in the 2018 farm bill because the House leans toward looser rules on farm payments.
In 2014, the House and Senate voted for a “hard cap” on payments and to limit subsidies to a farmer, the farmer’s spouse and one manager per farm. The reforms were deleted when the final version of the 2014 farm law was written.
Grassley said he is working with Senate Agriculture Committee leaders to include his payment-limit plan in the Senate version of the farm bill. The House farm bill would make cousins, nieces and nephews eligible for farm subsides and remove payment limits on some forms of corporate farming. “I hope we can get something stronger” than the current set of rules, said Grassley.