Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act Of 2012

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I tried to get this amendment adopted in the 2008 farm bill. It got 57 votes, but it was under a 60-vote rule, so obviously it did not get adopted.

This amendment would cap payments that one farmer can get on marketing loans and loan deficiency payments. We cannot have 70 percent of the farm payments going to 10 percent of the largest farmers.

I think this amendment will help add integrity to the program. We should have caps on title I commodity programs. This will add defensibility to this bill, along with the payment limit reforms we were able to put in in the committee before the bill was voted out.

Opponents will argue--I am sure you will hear this argument--that this would increase forfeitures of crop. But I believe they are overstating that issue, especially given current prices. And even if a farmer did forfeit crop----

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Well, this is a commonsense amendment. I hope you will vote for it.

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