Senator Chuck Grassley has been a staunch critic of wasteful spending by today’s government, including in agriculture.
He has repeatedly accused the Biden administration of abusing Commodity Credit Corporation Funds. He took to the Senate floor to express his disappointment in one of the USDA;s final acts under the administration, to increase payment limits for specialty crop farmers from $15,000 to $900,000 under the Marketing Assistance for Speciality Crops Program.
“This increase cost American taxpayers over $650 million, without a vote of a Congress. Had this been the desire of Congress, it would have been included in the Continuing Resolution passed just weeks before,” the Senator notes. “Article 1 of the Consitution is very clear. Congress has the power of the purse; it’s time we stop the abuse of that power by the executive branch, whether that’s Republican or Democrat.”
Senator Grassley says that he plans to advocate for limits on the amount of money that one farmer can get from government farm programs, preventing the subsidization of big farms from becoming even bigger, and focusing that spending on small to medium-sized farms.
He looks forward to pursuing the cap in the new five-year Farm Bill to come.
