WASHINGTON – At a recent Senate Agriculture Committee hearing, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack gave an update on the implementation of the Agricultural Act of 2014.
Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley has been dissatisfied with the bill’s handling of actively engaged farmers ever since the conference report was completed; he says the actively engaged provision was watered down by conferees, and still allows too many farmers who aren’t actively engaged in farming to collect subsidies on a single farm.
“That doesn’t accomplish what I want to accomplish,” Grassley said, “and I think, where his heart is.”
At the hearing, Vilsack stated his understanding that the new farm bill restricts his ability somewhat.
“The way I understand it,” Vilsack said, “the modification and the restriction that was emplaced by virtue of the 2014 farm bill really, really narrows the capacity of the Secretary in this particular space, because as I understand it, you essentially said, in essence, ‘If it’s a family farm,’ with a very broad definition of a family farm, ‘you can’t be focusing on ‘actively engaged’ within the context of a family farm.'”
Grassley says one of his goals at the hearing was to drill down through exactly what Vilsack can and can’t do under existing law.
“The least he can do,” concluded Grassley, “is in non-family farms, [to] make sure there’s only one manager per farm.”
According to Grassley, gaming the system can become absurd without stricter oversight from USDA, as evidenced by the organization of a single farm in Louisiana.
“One farming operation, 22 different sub-units, 17 owners,” said Grassley. “16 owners were named as managers, and being named as managers, then they benefited from the farm program. Some of them aren’t even in the farming operation on a regular basis; they live in 7 different states. Consequently, they can’t be what you call ‘actively engaged.’ The farm program ought to be for farmers, not for non-farmers living in the cities somehow being called a manager and maybe making one phone call a year, or something like that.”
To hear more from Grassley about Vilsack’s updates on implementing the new farm bill, click here.
