Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
Putting a hard cap on federal farm program payments has proven to be a difficult task, but proponents of the idea won a rare victory this week.
A provision to cap annual farm program payments at $250,000 per individual unexpectedly passed the Senate Budget Committee Thursday. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, introduced the amendment in the budget committee in an effort to direct more farm funding to nutrition programs.
Wealthy landowners have for years been reaping millions of dollars from farm programs, a fact that has rubbed many small family farmers the wrong way. Grassley has pushed for the payment limits throughout the process of writing the new Farm Bill, but he suffered a defeat in December when his payment limits proposal failed to reach the necessary 60-vote threshold in the full Senate.
"The farm bills that passed the House and Senate have loopholes that make the farm payment system worse that what we operate under now," said Grassley in a press release Thursday afternoon. "So, despite the fact that we're in the middle of conference negotiations, I'm looking for ways to address the problems that weren't taken care of. The majority of the Senate gave its support to payment limits during the farm bill, so it seems only right to keep pushing for passage."
In December the full Senate voted 56-43 for Grassley's payment limits amendment. But 60 votes were needed at that time because of a threat of a Farm Bill filibuster from southern Senators. Instead of a hard cap on payments per individual, the Senate passed a limit on adjusted gross income for eligibility in farm programs. Studies have shown that approach would do little to limit the ability of wealthy landowners to cash in on farm programs.
Grassley said the payment caps would save $641 million over five years and more than $1.4 billion over 10 years.
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