Grassley Reacts to Payment Limits Vote

GRASSLEY REACTS TO PAYMENT LIMITS VOTE

Sen. Chuck Grassley today made the following comment after his amendment to place a hard cap on farm payments was defeated by a vote of 46 - 53. Grassley first began talking about payment limits when he was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. His last major push for a hard cap on farm payments was during the 2002 Farm Bill debate. A version of today's Grassley/Dorgan amendment was included in that Senate farm bill, but the amendment was taken out during negotiations with the House of Representatives. It has since been included in several budget debates, but has not made it past the conference committees.

"Today's vote was not indicative of the amount of support behind the policy of our amendment. While some Senators who support the concept of payment limits didn't want to open the Farm Bill, I just can't sit back and justify letting 10 percent of farmers get 72 percent of the farm payments and letting those who are not really actively farming get farm payments. It's not what they were intended to do. That's why I will continue to fight for the small and medium sized farmers with the good, sound policy that was behind this amendment."

http://grassley.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=4973&Month=11&Year=2005