releases: https://kind.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/icymi-affirm-act-real-farm-bill-reform
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| https://kind.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/icymi-affirm-act-real-farm-bill-reform | ICYMI – Affirm Act Is Real Farm Bill Reform | 2015-11-12 | 2015 | 2015-11 | Democrat | House | WI | Ron Kind | K000188 | kind.house.gov | legacy | La Crosse, WI Today, Taxpayers for Common Sense, a non-partisan group focused on stopping government waste, wrote an op-ed in U.S. News and World Report about the positive impact of the Assisting Family Farmers through Insurance Reform Measures (AFFIRM) Act. Rep. Kind and Rep. Sensenbrenner introduced the AFFIRM Act last week. The legislation makes bold reforms to crop insurance premium subsidy payments, saves taxpayer dollars and promotes transparency. The full text of the op-ed can be read below: U.S. News and World Report - Planting the Seeds of Real Farm Reform By: Ryan Alexander I have written onthese pagesand elsewhere about the many ways that the 2014 farm billhas already failed taxpayers. Apologists for big spending on agriculture claimed passing the nearly $1 trillion bill would generate $16.6 billion in savings over 10 years, but this fantasy is crashing down less than two years after the bill was signed into law. The reality is the 2014 farm bill increased spending much more than promised. Spending in fiscal year 2014 alone was $5.2 billion more than projected by the farm bill because of payments made to farmers. And the Department of Agriculture has testified that its "cost cutting" shallow loss programs are going to be $3 billion over-budget in just their first year of payments. It's pretty clear those promises of savings are never going to bear fruit. That's why Reps. Ron Kind, D-Wis., and Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., last week introduced the Assisting Family Farmers through Insurance Reform Measures Act. Longtime observers of the Washington policy landscape, these congressmen know good agriculture policy requires years of cultivation. Before we can plant an agriculture policy that better serves farmers, consumers and taxpayers, we have to begin clearing out special interest brambles and brush that grow up long before most people start paying attention to the once-every-six-years farm bill.And these kernels of good reform must be tended to withstand ferocious attacks from moneyed special interests that benefit from the dysfunctional status quo. The bill is the latest application of common sense reform. It would help rein in the spiraling cost of the nearly $9 billion a year in federally subsidized crop insurance program, which has quickly become the most expensive taxpayer subsidy for agriculture. It brings crop insurance in line with every other federal subsidy available for agricultural businesses. It caps at $40,000 the amount of subsidy an individual can get to buy their insurance, as opposed to the 26 operations that each receivedmore than $1 millionin one year. By excluding any company with an adjusted (after your accountant deducts every last dime spent as a business cost) gross income greater than a quarter million dollars, it targets subsidies to smaller, beginning and family farms. It caps at $900 million the subsidy private crop insurance companies receive for selling policies and filing claims (while taxpayers bear most of the risk of losses). It eliminates an egregious provision that automatically adjusts payouts if prices at harvest are higher than anticipated at planting. And it would require USDA to release to taxpayers the names of every individual, including members of Congress, who receives subsidies, just like USDA does for every other agricultural income support program. It's clear the Agriculture Committees will do everything it can to cut down any attempt to harvest those promised savings. Section 201 of the budget deal passed last month required the Department of Agriculture to renegotiate the Standard Reinsurance Agreement a contractual agreement between taxpayers and those paper-pushing crop insurance companies in order to reduce subsidies to companies by $3.5 billion.Even before the inkhad dried, Agriculture Committee leaders crowed about how they'd been promised these cuts would be undone in the upcoming omnibus spending deal, shifting those $3.5 billion in cuts to some other part of the budget or even just putting them on the nation's credit card. The bill once again mandates this deal be renegotiated to produce savings. When offered as an amendment during the 2014 farm bill debate, Kind and Sensenbrenner's bill fell just a few votes shy of passing. In that debate the seed was planted. In just two years, it's become clear the 2014 farm bill gives taxpayers nothing but a bitter harvest. The Assisting Family Farmers through Insurance Reform Measures Act will help change that. Any farmer worth their salt will tell you the steps to getting a good yield come long before the harvest. A good farmer knows the limits and potential of his land. He or she will spend years building fertility into the soil. And after the seeds are in the ground, the plants must be tended, flexibly adjusting to changing circumstances as needed. I am so happy to see that some in Congress know the same diligence is required when what you're looking to reap is savings for taxpayers. | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |