On the recordOctober 11, 2013
I thank Chairman Ryan for putting this resolution together. I also want to take time to recognize and thank Chairman Lucas. In his tone and tenacity in putting together a farm bill, I think he has served as an example in this House of how to be a chairman and bring together divergent groups. I was very supportive of what we have done, but I am also very supportive of this resolution here today. Implementing a 15-percentage point reduction in crop insurance for producers with an adjusted gross income exceeding $750,000, or $1.5 million for joint filers, just like the Senate amendment, seems to be common sense, in my mind. However, this resolution calls for the elimination of delayed implementation in the Senate amendment. The Senate amendment delays this. We are simply getting rid of the delay of this implementation. This means test proposal would save roughly $1 billion over 10 years, something I think is very worthy for this body to consider. On average, taxpayers are covering about 62 percent of crop insurance premiums. This proposal would reduce that to be about 47 percent, roughly, for high-income producers. It is still a very generous deal for very profitable producers. We encourage profitability. We want them to be as prosperous as they possibly can be. That does not mean that we have an unlimited amount of money that we can continue, as taxpayers, to cover some of those risks. This reduction impacts roughly the top 1 percent of producers.…
