RMFU Supports AGI Caps in Farm Bill

In a letter to our six senators representing Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming, RMFU President Kent Peppler, a Mead, Colo., farmer, urged them to support amendments to the Senate’s Farm Bill which will preserve the income limits on eligibility for crop insurance subsidies.

“The Senate version of the Farm Bill has a tax bombshell hidden in a feel-good proposal about tying conservation compliance to crop subsidies, Peppler said. Buried in the “Compliance” proposal are a few sentences doing away with income caps for crop insurance. With no attempt to connect the two proposals, the Compliance provision also stipulates that there will no longer be caps on crop insurance based on adjusted gross income (AGI).

“The crop insurance subsidy is meant to help small and medium-sized farm operations manage their risks,” Peppler said. “Capping the insurance subsidy at incomes above $750,000 has been a way to keep tax-loophole harvesters out of the fund. Removing that cap will channel millions of taxpayer dollars into the pockets of the nation’s wealthiest landowners.”

In the letter, RMFU urged our Senators to support Amendments 953 and 999 to protect the income cap. “We are grateful to the House,” Peppler said, “for not proposing to open the federal treasury to further looting by monied special interests.”