With a vote of 75 to 24 – the Senate has approved a farm bill amendment that sets a hard cap of 75-thousand dollars on marketing loan gains. The amendment was introduced by Iowa’s Chuck Grassley – a long-time advocate of limits on farm program payments. Grassley says the reform will help to bring more defensibility for the farm program.
Of the amendments that went to a roll call vote Tuesday – the Senate rejected amendments to limit categorical eligibility for the supplemental nutrition assistance program to those who receive cash assistance, to end the state bonus payments for administering SNAP and to improve the program of value-added agricultural producer grants. But amendments to require Federal milk marketing order reform, to require more frequent dairy reporting, to strengthen rural communities and foster the next generation of farmers and ranchers and to encourage the purchase of pulse crop products for school meals programs were approved.
Votes continued through the evening. Amendments to establish an average adjusted gross income limitation of 250-thousand dollars for all payments and benefits under the farm bill, to provide that any entity receiving a business and industry direct or guaranteed loan for a wind energy project is ineligible for any other Federal benefit, assistance, or incentive for the project, to eliminate the organic certification cost share assistance program and to strike a reduction in SNAP and increase funding for the fresh fruit and vegetable program with an offset limiting crop insurance reimbursements to providers were each rejected. Senators agreed to an amendment to require a study into the feasibility of an insurance product that covers food safety recalls.
The Senate rounded out Tuesday’s farm bill voting by rejecting three amendments offered by South Carolina’s Jim DeMint. One to prohibit mandatory or compulsory checkoff programs was opposed by the American Soybean Association. The other two were to prohibit the Secretary from making loan guarantees and to maintain funding at current levels for programs providing access to broadband telecommunications services in rural areas.