SUPPORT COMMON SENSE AMENDMENTS TO REIN IN TRILLION DOLLAR HOUSE FARM BILL

June 19, 2013

Dear Representative:

In its current form, the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013 or FARRM (H.R. 1947) should be rejected for its near-trillion dollar price tag and its expansion of the government’s outsized and outdated role in American agriculture. However, we urge you to support common sense amendments to rein in its out-of-control spending on the highly subsidized federal crop insurance program, decades-old price and commodity supports, and special interest and corporate welfare carve-outs for one of the brightest sectors of the economy.

Taxpayers for Common Sense urges you to support the following reform amendments to H.R. 1947 that could save taxpayers billions of dollars over the next decade:

Bring crop insurance in line with every other safety net program in the bill through common sense means testing, payment limits, and transparency. Taxpayers cannot continue to afford record costs ($14 billion just last year) for a program that guarantees incomes of some of the most profitable agribusinesses in the country. Please support:

• Carney/Radel Amendment #1 to ensure that future renegotiations of the Standard Reinsurance Agreement, which determines annual subsidies for private crop insurance companies, are allowed to save taxpayer dollars.
• Thompson/Fortenberry Amendment #28 to add basic conservation accountability measures to crop insurance premium subsidies, which reduces taxpayer liabilities.
• Kind Amendment #149 to limit crop insurance premium subsidies to profitable agribusinesses, allow taxpayers to know who is receiving $7 billion in premium subsidies each year, and reduce annual subsidies to private crop insurance companies.

Taxpayers cannot afford to shield an entire industry from normal business risk through “shallow loss” income entitlement programs, nor should Washington be setting prices. While the Rules Committee has stripped the House from the opportunity to eliminate these costly programs, at the very least the effects of these intrusions into the market should be tempered. Please support:

• Gibbs/Kind Amendment #3 to reduce woefully high government-set price supports.
• Pitts Amendment #13 to modify the sugar program to save taxpayer dollars.
• Fortenberry Amendment #93 to close loopholes allowing non-farmers to receive billions in farm subsidies and add stricter annual commodity payment caps of $250,000 instead of allowing unlimited subsidies to flow to a sector expected to reap record profits.

Eliminate corporate welfare programs for industries that have relied on government subsidies for decades, many of those experiencing a run of success not seen in generations. Please support:

• Chabot Amendment #43 to eliminate funding for the Market Access Program, a corporate welfare program that funds overseas trade promotion.
• Broun Amendment #62 to repeal permanent law for dairy so taxpayers are not faced with extraneous spending on farm programs as farm bill expiration nears.
• Graves Amendment #83 to ensure that corn farmers selling their crop to corn ethanol production facilities may not also receive commodity subsidies through the farm bill.
• Marino Amendment #170 to repeal the Biodiesel Fuel Education Program which is yet another handout for a mature industry, soy biodiesel.
• Brooks Amendment #178 to terminate funding for the Emerging Markets Program, a similar trade promotion program that benefits large companies and agribusinesses.

Again, we encourage you to oppose H.R. 1947 but support common sense measures to rein in its wasteful spending and help reduce our $16.8 trillion national debt.

For more information, please contact me or Josh Sewell at 202-546-8500 or josh[at]taxpayer.net.

Sincerely,

Ryan Alexander
President