On the recordAugust 2, 2012
This is the final amendment to the bill. It will not kill the bill or send it back to committee. I repeat--it will not kill the bill nor will it send it back to committee. If adopted, however, the bill will immediately be amended and proceed under final passage. In the Republicans' rush to legislate, they have missed some important pieces that the motion to recommit would address. First, the bill, H.R. 6233, the Agricultural Disaster Assistance Act of 2012, allows disaster payments to go to corporations incorporated under State law, but there is nothing in the bill to prevent these corporations from being wholly-owned subsidiaries of foreign corporations. Under current law, for much of the farm safety net, foreign corporations--defined under current law as to where more than 10 percent of the beneficial ownership is held by a non-U.S. citizen-- cannot receive farm payments. This bill fails to do that. The farm bill we passed in committee addressed the current law. It passed by a bipartisan vote of 35-11. It includes the same provisions that are in this disaster package. It also ensures that payments do not go to foreign corporations. This motion to recommit fixes that. Additionally, under current law, there is a provision to prevent duplicative payments from being made to producers under disaster programs, in other words, double-dipping. This provision was included to prevent producers from collecting payments from multiple programs for the same disaster.…
