Russ Feingold: “I am introducing today a new measure to curb the receipt of Federal irrigation subsidies by large agribusiness…”

“I am introducing today a new measure to curb the receipt of Federal irrigation subsidies by large agribusiness interests. I am introducing legislation in this area as a deficit reduction measure because I believe that the Federal Government needs to scrutinize carefully all forms of assistance it provides in these times of fiscal constraint. I am also prompted to act in this area, Mr. President, because the Federal Government has been unable to correct fundamental abuses of reclamation law that cost the taxpayer millions of dollars every year. In 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt proposed legislation, which came to be known as the Reclamation Act, to encourage development of family farms throughout the western United States. The idea was to provide needed water for areas that were otherwise dry and give small farms--those no larger than 160 acres--a chance, with a helping hand from the Federal Government, to establish themselves. Under the Reclamation Reform Act of 1982, Congress acted to expand the size of the farms that could receive subsidized water to 960 acres. The RRA of 1982 expressly prohibits farms that exceed 960 acres in size from receiving Federally-subsidized water.”