Dick Lugar: “USDA's Economic Research Service estimates that in calendar year 2000, the latest year for which this data is available…”

“USDA's Economic Research Service estimates that in calendar year 2000, the latest year for which this data is available, there were, in fact, 764,000 farms in America with an annual gross farm income of $20,000 or more. I cite that figure to give some idea of the number of farms that, given this threshold, we are discussing in this amendment. As I mentioned, on some of these farms there are at least two entities--maybe more--sharing production risk and having $20,000 at stake in terms of gross income. Each of these entities would qualify for a $7,000 payment. This means that those who have been scoring the amendment estimate there could be, under the widest interpretation, as many as 1.3 million payments of $7,000 a year. That is the basis upon which we arrive at the $25 million sum for all of the commodity section over a 5-year period of time. I make that point simply to undergird, for Senators who are listening to the argument, the financial aspects.”