Farm Bill (HR 2642)

January 29, 2014

Congressman Tom McClintock voted No on HR 2642 today and issued the following statement:

HR 2642 – Farm Bill: NO. This bill spends nearly a trillion dollars over the next decade (roughly $8,000 per family) to continue massive subsidies to agribusiness and to support an out-of-control food stamp program. Yes, it does away with the direct payments program that pays farmers NOT to grow crops. But it replaces direct payments with a crop insurance subsidy that puts taxpayers on the risky end of a massive derivative scheme. Proponents say it cuts the program by 1.6 percent (after ballooning 32 percent over the past five years), but if current high commodity prices return to historic averages, taxpayers will pay much more. That’s why most taxpayer groups oppose it.

In a cynical attempt to pressure Western representatives, the House Leadership inserted a one-year extension of the PILT program, which compensates Western rural counties for local tax revenues they’ve lost because of excessive federal land acquisitions. I strongly support PILT but cannot support the overall bill into which it has been placed.