On August 4, Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Russ Feingold (D-WI) introduced legislation, The Rural America Preservation Act, to establish more stringent farm program payment limits and close legal loopholes that render current limits meaningless.

The bill would establish a limit of $250,000 for far m program payments to any individual in an attempt to better target farm program payments to family farmers. The legislation would save the federal treasury more than $1 billion over 10 years, conservatively.

The bill caps direct payments at $40,000; counter-cyclical payments at $60,000; and marketing loan gains (including forfeitures), loan deficiency payments, and commodity certificates at $150,000 annually. The bill also closes loopholes that individuals use to evade current statutory limits. And the bill improves the standard which the Department of Agriculture uses to determine whether farmers are actively engaged in their operations.

One of the most important things this bill does is to tighten rules that are supposed to limit payments to active farmers who work the land and their landlords. Current law is weak. Investors who participate in one or two conference calls are considered active farmers, allowing mega-farms to get around payment limitations by claiming uninvolved investors as partners.

As you may remember, Senator Grassley has sponsored similar legislation in both of the last two Farm Bill debates, winning majority votes on the Senate floor both times but subsequently losing the language in the House-Senate Conference Committee.

And for most of the last decade, Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) was the leading Democrat co-sponsor of payment limits legislation and amendments with Senator Grassley. However, due to his retirement from the Senate after this year, Senator Feingold joined Senator Grassley in co-sponsoring the bill in Senator Dorgan’s stead.

Senator Grassley indicated “the farm program was never intended to help big farmers get bigger.” Senator Feingold added that “for too long large agribusinesses and non-farmers have gamed the limits on farm subsidy programs, taking limited and critical resources better used to support our family farmers that are facing numerous challenges in the current economic climate.”

We couldn’t agree more. Now is the time for change. Now is the time to ensure a farm policy that works for the benefit of small and mid-size family farms and rural communities.

If you agree too, we need your voice! Please join us in the debate and make your voice heard.

Contact Traci Bruckner, tracib@cfra.org or 402.687.2103 x 1016 to learn how you can help.