Contact: Aaron White
Phone: 202-225-5506
[email protected]
La Crosse – Today, U.S. Rep. Ron Kind criticized the House Committee on Rules for blocking several bipartisan amendments offered ahead of debate on the 2018 Farm Bill, H.R. 2, the Agriculture and Nutrition Act. The amendments Rep. Kind led included amendments to create more transparency in the crop insurance program, protect the Conservation Stewardship Program, and avoid trade disputes with Brazil due to U.S. cotton subsidies.
“The vote to block these money-saving, bipartisan amendments to the Farm Bill is yet another example of Washington putting itself before hardworking Wisconsin farmers, workers, and families,” said Rep. Ron Kind. “This Farm Bill is our chance to fix what’s not working for our farmers, not funnel more giveaways to millionaires and huge agribusiness.”
Rep. Kind’s amendments to the 2018 Farm Bill included the following:
· A bipartisan amendment to: Bring crop insurance in line with other taxpayer funded programs, in order to create more transparency within the Crop Insurance Program (Reps. Kind/Sensenbrenner)
· An amendment to: Reinstate the Conservation Stewardship Program, in order to give farmers the tools they need for land conservation projects
· An amendment to: Reverse a provision found in the budgetary funding bill from February that made cotton seed covered under Title 1, this reversal is needed in order to avoid a trade dispute with the World Trade Organization and Brazilian cotton farmers
· A bipartisan amendment to: Lower the return rate that insurance companies can receive to 12% on Crop Insurance premiums, in order to save $3 billion over 10 years
(Reps. Kind/Sanford)
· A bipartisan amendment to: Create a gross income limit for Crop Insurance recipients at $500,000, in order to avoid paying crop insurance subsidies to millionaires and billionaires (Reps. Kind/Rothfuss)
· A bipartisan amendment to: Lower the gross income limit for Title I recipients from $900,000 to $500,000, in order to avoid subsidizing millionaire’s farms (Reps. Kind/Rothfuss/Sensenbrenner)
One bipartisan amendment Rep. Kind co-sponsored was approved by the Rules Committee. The amendment would open the US sugar market, in order to avoid perpetuating an artificially supported market. It is led by Rep. Foxx, with Reps. Danny K. Davis, Shuster, Blumenauer, Chabot, Speier, Barletta and Kind co-sponsoring.
