Coalition Urges Policymakers to Reform the “Terrible Twelve” of Farm Policy

Coalition Urges Policymakers to Reform the “Terrible Twelve” of Farm Policy

Posted: 15 May 2013 09:10 AM PDT

Action is heating up on the next farm bill, as the Senate Agriculture Committee today completed its markup of their bill which will go to the Senate for consideration.  The House is scheduled to release its markup on Wednesday.  “No surprise” the Senate bill is replete with subsidies and support programs that cost tens of billions of dollars.

Yesterday, in anticipation of the markup, eleven taxpayer and policy groups sent a letter to the House and the Senate with its listing of the “Terrible Twelve  “the twelve most egregious farm policies.”  The groups urged policymakers to reform or eliminate these costly and distorting programs:

1. Direct payments
2. Federal crop insurance
3. Shallow loss program
4. USDA Trade Promotion programs
5. Sugar program
6. Diary Market Stabilization Plan
7. Target prices
8. Rural broadband
9. Mandatory assessments
10. Cotton program
11. Ethanol’s Feedstock Flexibility Program
12. Biomass Crop Assistance Program

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