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Farm Program Integrity Act reintroduced in U.S. Senate

Bipartisan legislation has been introduced in the U.S. Senate to ensure farm payments only go to actively engaged farmers.

Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley tells Brownfield he and Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown are reintroducing the Farm Program Integrity Act to set sound and enforceable payment limits for federal subsidies.

“Ensuring that payments are reserved for actively engaged farmers. Those happen to be folks as I describe them, ‘with dirt under their fingernails.”

Brown says too often, farm program payments have gone to producers who do not need support, or to people who aren’t even involved in farming.

The bill would set a hard cap of $25,000 in total commodity support for any one farm operation and requires beneficiaries of the farm payment system spend at least 50 percent of each year engaged in farm labor or management.

“In response to large farms who say this legislation would hurt their operation, there’s a straightforward question. Why do you need a $250,000 check from the government every year to run your business?”

Grassley says he’ll be working to get the Farm Program Integrity Act included in the 2023 Farm Bill.