Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley feigned shock that House and Senate negotiators did not want his farm subsidy reform in the final version of the five-year farm bill. “Surprise, surprise, surprise,” he said scornfully on Thursday. But even as it became apparent that lawmakers were unwilling to tighten farm subsidy rules, activists had no immediate word if the House would prevail with its proposal to loosen them.
House Agriculture chairman Michael Conaway was giving priority to his proposal to make nieces, nephews, and cousins of farmers eligible for up to $125,000 a year in crop supports, according to an alliance of budget hawks, environmentalists, and small-farm advocates early this week. The activists said the proposal would be a step backward in the decades-long campaign to tighten the government’s weak limits on farm subsidies. Conaway is one of the four lead negotiators on the farm bill.
The “four corners,” as the negotiators are known, announced jointly that they had reached an agreement in principle on the $87-billion-a-year farm bill. “We are working to finalize legal and report language as well as CBO scores, but we still have more work to do,” they said on Thursday. “We are committed to delivering a new farm bill to America as quickly as possible.”
Although no details have been formally released, indications were that House Republicans had lost in their effort to impose stricter work requirements on SNAP recipients. Food stamps, land stewardship, and payment limits were the leading issues for House and Senate conferees. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the farm bill will include his plan to legalize industrial hemp and put the USDA in charge of regulating the new crop.
“You ought to be a real farmer if you’re going to get help from the farm program,” said Grassley. The bipartisan farm bill passed by the Senate included Grassley’s language to restrict farm subsidies to farmers, their spouses, and one “manager” per farm. At present, there is no limit on managers. Grassley said the loophole allows big operations to have multiple managers who perform little work and enables city dwellers to collect subsidies without even setting foot on the farm.
“You’re going to have Wall Street bankers getting subsidies. … They don’t have dirt under their fingernails,” said Grassley in lampooning the current eligibility rules for farm subsidies.
Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, one of the “four corners,” told reporters that the farm bill will preserve the green-payment Conservation Stewardship Program. The House wanted to eliminate it.