October 30, 2013

Dear Chairwoman Stabenow, Ranking Member Cochran, Chairman Lucas, and Ranking Member Peterson:

As you lead the formal conference in pursuit of a final farm bill, Taxpayers for Common Sense urges you to take this opportunity to reform Washington’s role in agriculture in a way that reflects the fiscal realities facing both taxpayers and the agricultural sector.

Taxpayers are currently responsible for $17 trillion in debt, face large annual deficits, and have major challenges in financing federal commitments to health care, Social Security, and infrastructure on the horizon. Over the last decade the agricultural sector has experienced record profits, significant capital accumulation, and increased efficiencies allowing it to prosper during both the Great Recession and the record 2011 drought.

The time has come for U.S. agricultural policies to become more cost-effective, transparent, accountable to taxpayers, and reflective of today’s modern production practices. Neither the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013 (H.R. 2642) nor the Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2013 (S. 954) contain the necessary steps to truly reform Washington’s role in agriculture. There are, however, a number of elements that if put together, will be a significant step forward.

Taxpayers for Common Sense urges you to:

• Eliminate fiscally irresponsible or industry irrelevant programs. Both the House and Senate have taken the appropriate step of ending numerous costly market-distorting commodity supports. Eliminating the 17 year old “temporary” direct payment, failed ACRE, and market distorting counter cyclical payments programs is a positive step forward. We applaud you for making this fiscally responsible move and urge you not to undercut it with new subsidies.
   
• Do not replace bad policy with even worse policy. Taxpayers deserve real savings from a farm bill that is crafted in light of the fiscal realities facing both taxpayers and the agricultural sector. Savings obtained by eliminating wasteful programs from the past should not be used to create new permanent entitlement programs that make taxpayers responsible for guaranteeing up to 90% of an individual business' anticipated revenue. The “shallow loss” and target price programs from each bill should be eliminated.
   
• Make crop insurance accountable to taxpayers. Instead of expanding the federally subsidized crop insurance entitlement program, it needs to be aligned with every other major agricultural program and made more accountable to taxpayers. Retaining the minor but common sense means test and conservation accountability provisions from the Senate bill, Sec. 11033 and Sec. 11035, will give taxpayers a sliver of temperament on an unlimited subsidy program that routinely exceeds CBO cost predictions.
   
• Give taxpayers the opportunity for real reform. Taxpayers deserve a fair and open debate on both the agricultural and nutrition safety nets. Marrying the two serves no purpose other than political expediency at the expense of real reform. They are two separate conversations and taxpayers deserve for the programs in each to be evaluated on their own merits. The conference should follow the House’s lead and produce an agriculture only farm bill and a nutrition only bill.  

Recent debates and actions around the partial government shutdown and debt ceiling have laid bare the consequences of business-as-usual Washington. Taxpayers can afford nothing less than a final farm bill that is truly focused on the best interests of the country, rather than one designed to address parochial concerns for narrow constituencies. By keeping in a final package the elements mentioned above, taxpayers can at least start taking steps at true reform. If conferees are unwilling to make the tough choices to craft a farm bill that is more cost-effective, transparent, accountable to taxpayers, and reflective of today’s modern production practices, then all pieces of legislation should be scrapped and the committees head back to the drawing board.

For more information contact Joshua Sewell, josh[at]taxpayer.net, 202-546-8500 x116.

Sincerely,
 

Taxpayers for Common Sense