Blumenauer Proposes Caps to Multi-Billion Dollar Crop Insurance Program

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 -- Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Oregon, issued the following news release on Sept. 26, 2023:

Today, Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) introduced the AFFIRM Act to cap, clarify and better target federal crop insurance subsidies to small and mid-sized farmers. The legislation would limit crop insurance subsides to $125,000 per year per recipient, eliminate subsidies for farmers earning more than $250,000, and ensure subsidy recipients are actively working on a farm.

"While there is significant waste with the crop insurance program, it provides virtually no support for Oregon and our diverse agricultural base. This is incomprehensible," said Congressman Blumenauer. "By establishing modest payment limits and a means test, we can save money while helping small farmers and ranchers who are short changed or left out altogether."

"Other farm subsidies are already subject to payments limits and means tests, so it is long past time for crop insurance subsidies to be subject to the same limits," said Scott Faber, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs for the Environmental Working Group. "These reasonable reforms will level the playing field and - when combined with program delivery reforms - save billions. It's time to modernize crop insurance to better serve all farmers, not just the 20 percent of farmers who can afford to participate, and to limit subsidies to crop insurance agents and companies."

"The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) applauds the introduction of the Assisting Family Farmers through Insurance Reform Measures (AFFIRM) Act by Rep. Blumenauer. By capping annual premium subsidies to $125,000 per farmer, eliminating premium subsidies for well-off farmers, and reducing administrative cost subsidies for crop insurance companies, the AFFIRM Act will ensure the crop insurance system is functioning as intended and not wasting millions of taxpayer dollars. Further, this legislation increases transparency around subsidy recipients by requiring USDA to disclose recipients and the amounts they receive," said David Williams, President, Taxpayers Protection Alliance.

"Federal crop insurance is vital to protect farmers from risks while farming," says Billy Hackett, Policy Specialist at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. "But without the transparency, means tests, or payment limits that apply to other farm programs, it has evolved into a taxpayer-funded profit guarantee for private insurance companies and the country's largest, highest-income commodity farms. These reforms present an opportunity to level the playing field for small to mid-sized, beginning, and diversified farms who feed our communities but are left out of the farm safety net altogether, and to save tens of billions of dollars."

"The American farm safety net is broken and farmers are left falling through its cracks," said Joe Van Wye, Policy and Outreach Director at Farm Action Fund. "Our crop insurance program impedes new and beginning farmers, wastes taxpayer dollars, and incentivizes production of corporate-controlled industrial livestock feed. We commend Representative Blumenauer for his leadership, and urge Congress to repair our crop insurance program so that it works for American farmers."

The Assisting Family Farmers through Insurance Reform Measures (AFFIRM) Act will:

* Cap annual premium subsidies at $125,000 per farmer. While many farmers don't receive more than $10,000 per year to help them pay for their crop insurance, a few large agribusinesses receive as much as $1 million per year in federal subsidy.

* Eliminate premium subsidies for farmers earning more than $250,000 in adjusted gross income. Premium subsidies should be going to small and mid-size farms that need the support and not to large companies that can afford coverage on their own.

* Increase transparency in the crop insurance program by requiringUSDA to disclose the names of subsidy recipients and how much they receive.

* Restrict crop insurance subsidies to farmers who are actually farmingby applying basic work requirements to subsidy recipients.

For a one-page fact sheet, click here (https://blumenauer.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/blumenauer.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2023-09-22-affirm-act-one-pager.pdf). For full bill text, click here (https://blumenauer.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/blumenauer.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/blumen_048_xml-1.pdf).

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Original text here: https://blumenauer.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/blumenauer-proposes-caps-to-multi-billion-dollar-crop-insurance-program