Rep. Ellison Statement on Passing of Farm Bill

Statement

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) released the following statement today after voting against H.R. 2642, the conference report for the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013, which passed the House of Representatives on a 251 to 166 vote:

"The bill passed today includes important reforms that cut the amount of outdated direct payments made to grain and cotton farmers, protects wetlands and grasslands in Minnesota, and ties conservation compliance to crop insurance. However I voted against it because we shouldn't ask families on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to get by on less when we aren't asking corporate farmers to do the same.

"All legislation involves tradeoffs, but ultimately this bill made an unfair trade between families who need food and wealthy farmers. When I'm asked to choose between food assistance for families and crop subsidies to the wealthiest farmers in the country, I will choose food assistance every time. The bipartisan cap on crop insurance payments to the top 1% of farmers that was included in both versions of the bill passed by the House and the Senate was not included in the final legislation passed today. The bill also creates a new program that promises farmers they will be reimbursed for losses if record-high crop prices fall. The money saved by capping insurance payments and ending this program should have gone towards the families affected by cuts to food assistance.

"The bill also does little to increase transparency for our crop insurance program. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and I introduced an amendment to require members of Congress and cabinet secretaries to disclose if they are receiving crop insurance payments that was also removed from the final bill.

"We need to make sure working families who have fallen on hard times get the help they need before we give more handouts to wealthy farmers."

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