Floor Discussion Concerning Farm Bill

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, the American people recognize the importance of the family farmer to our Nation and the need to provide an adequate safety net for family farmers. In recent years, however, assistance to farmers has come under increasing scrutiny.

Critics of farm payments have argued that the largest corporate farms reap most of the benefits of these payments. What's more, farm payments that were originally designed to benefit small- and medium-sized family farmers have contributed to their own demise. Unlimited farm payments have placed upward pressure on land prices and have contributed to overproduction and lower commodity prices, driving many family farmers off the farm.

Last year, the Senate agreed, by an overwhelming vote of 66 to 31, to a bipartisan amendment sponsored by Senators DORGAN and myself to target Federal assistance to small-and medium-sized family farmers. The amendment would have limited direct and counter-cyclical payments to $75,000. It would have limited gains from marketing loans and LDPs to $150,000, and generic certificates would have been included in this limit. That would have limited farm payments to a combined total of $275,000.

That amendment was critical to family farmers in Iowa and indeed farmers across the Nation. I feel strongly the farm bill failed Iowa and failed all of our farmers when it failed to effectively address the issue of payment limitations.

A solid majority in the Budget Committee voted last week in favor of a payment limitation provision to limit total payments of all kinds to a combined limit of $300,000. This is more than I think is necessary. It is $25,000 more than the limit that won over two-thirds of the Senate. But in the interests of compromise it seems like a fair approach. The most important thing is that loopholes in the payment limitation law be closed so that the limitation at whatever level is actually the real, effective level.

The Budget Committee voted to apply the savings from this reasonable payment limit proposal against the reductions suffered by the Conservation Security Program, CSP, during consideration of the agricultural disaster package in the fiscal year 2003 omnibus appropriations bill.

This new conservation initiative from the 2002 farm bill will reward farmers and ranchers who voluntarily implement effective conservation on their working lands. Farmers and ranchers will receive public support as they provide public benefits to the Nation's natural resources and environment. This program allows family farmers to solve critical resource problems, with graduated rewards for increasing efforts. The CSP is an innovative new program in the Federal agricultural conservation toolbox and its full funding should be restored as soon as possible.

The Budget Committee endorsed payment limitation reform including a combined maximum cap of $300,000 and endorsed restoring funds to the Conservation Security Program. Payment limitation reform is long overdue, a fact reflected in the vote of the Budget Committee. If cuts should be ordered in the final budget resolution emerging from conference, payment limitations would be the most logical place to look for savings. I look forward to working with my colleagues on this important issue.