Chuck Grassley: “If, in fact, we have a year extension of the present farm bill, a couple things for certain will happen. First…”

“If, in fact, we have a year extension of the present farm bill, a couple things for certain will happen. First, immediately farmers will have to pay out of their cash flow last year's advance deficiency payment, because grain prices are higher now, at a time when some farmers did not get any crops and do not have that capability. If you have a 1-year extension, as opposed to the Freedom to Farm Act, money that would have gone from the Federal Treasury to the farm economy absolutely will not go. So I do not quite understand why people on the other side of the aisle say that the 'Freedom to Farm' agriculture bill is a sure, certain way to kill off the family farmers when their 1-year extension puts no money into agriculture whatsoever and the Freedom to Farm Act would. What we get with the Freedom to Farm Act is certainty. We know in the bill that the President vetoed, albeit less money than has been spent on agriculture over a long period of time, we know the certainty of $43.5 billion in agriculture programs over the next 7 years.”