Taxpayers for Common Sense Action
Farm Bill Passage.
Current farm policy includes price supports, loan programs and marketing loans for certain commodities that cost federal taxpayers billions of dollars every year. These same payments keep the farm economy depressed and continue the vicious cycle of overproduction and low commodity prices.
During late 2001, the House of Representatives took up H.R. 2646, the Farm Security Act. This legislation continues to direct the bulk of subsidies to corporate agribusiness instead of small family farms, at taxpayer expense. “Nearly half of all recent government payments have gone to the largest 8 percent of farms,” according to the Bush Administration’s Statement of Administration Policy on this bill.
The Farm Security Act, as passed by the House, would cost taxpayers $170 billion over ten years, and would increase spending by over $73 billion. In recent years farm subsidies have often been supplemented by emergency payments to farmers for both unforeseen natural disasters and market losses. Unforeseen events that require additional emergency spending could increase the $170 billion price tag dramatically.
The House passed the Farm Security Act.