Republicans Attempt to Ram Through Last-Minute, One-Sided Farm Bill

Washington, DC – Late last evening, Republican leadership decided to move forward today with a vote on a revised Farm Bill. The Republicans' last attempt to pass a Farm Bill failed last month by a vote of 234-195, with 172 Democrats and 62 Republicans voting against it. Today's bill separates the food assistance components of the bill from the agricultural provisions, which would leave millions of women and children lacking the food they need, and is also being presented under a closed rule, meaning no amendments can be adopted. This is the first time in over four decades that a Farm Bill has come to the floor under a completely closed rule, and the first time in history that such a bill comes to the floor with no legislative hearing or markup.

Democratic Representatives Earl Blumenauer (OR-03), Rosa DeLauro (CT-03), and Ron Kind (WI-03) attempted to offer a variety of amendments yesterday that would have reformed and strengthened the bill, but ALL were disallowed by the Republican-controlled Rules Committee.

"A bill pushed through in the dead of night with no reform, no open process, and no chance for amendments? No, thank you," said Blumenauer. "It's completely out of touch with reality for Republican leadership to try to bully through this bill, choking off the process. The American people deserve a Farm Bill that has real reform, not this pork-laden giveaway to agribusiness."

"Republicans are recklessly pushing forward a partisan bill designed to cause great harm and shutting down any attempt at an open discussion in the process," said DeLauro. "We are not allowed a vote on a single amendment even when—as with the amendments I have offered with Representatives Blumenauer and Kind—those amendments would save taxpayer dollars. The Republicans are playing shameful games with the livelihoods of American families."

"The bill that was defeated last month in the House of Representatives failed because it didn't include the type of reform needed to make the bill more fiscally responsible and responsive to the needs of farmers," said Kind. "My colleagues and I attempted to include those same reforms in this new bill, but we were shut out from the process by a House majority more interested in appeasing big agribusiness than in protecting taxpayers and family farmers."

The amendments offered included:

• An amendment capping the total crop insurance subsidies a single farmer could receive at $50,00 (DeLauro-Blumenauer) – saves $4.2 billion;
• An amendment capping reimbursements and rate of return for companies that administer the program (DeLauro-Blumenauer) – saves $5.3 billion;
• An amendment that would include the full AFFIRM Act, making a series of much needed reforms (Kind-Blumenauer-DeLauro-Petri) – saves $10.6 billion;
• An amendment ending direct payments to cotton farmers, which are wasteful, impossible to justify, and have been eliminated for all other commodity producers. (Blumenauer)—saves $823 million;
• An amendment that would prevent direct payments to the richest farmers with a gross income of over $750,000 a year, and would reduce the subsidy for farmers with an adjusted gross income between $250,000 and $750,000 a year, while making no changes for farmers with an adjusted gross income of less than $250,000 (Blumenauer)—saves $2.46 billion

Total Savings – At least $23.3 Billion

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