A vote is scheduled for later this morning in the U.S. Senate on Senator Charles Grassley’s bid to cut off farm subsidies to the nation’s largest farmers — and non-farmers.
During debate of the proposal Wednesday, Grassley said 10 percent of the nation’s farmers currently get 73 percent of federal farm subsidies. According to Grassley, the richest farmers get the most as one percent of the nation’s farmers get 30 percent of farm program payments.
"Government payments were originally designed to benefit our small and medium farmers. But instead now as you can see the vast majority of (the payments) are going…to the biggest farmers," Grassley said during Senate debate. Grassley’s amendment would cap payments at a quarter of a million dollars ($250,000) and require that subsidies go only to those actually engaged in farming.