March 2, 2020 — In an interview with West Michigan’s MiBiz, Michigan Agri-Business Assocation president Chuck Lippstreu discussed the importance of Congressional oversight over payment rates for the Market Facilitation Program. From the full story in MiBiz: Following a request from Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, the U.S. Government Accountability Office will investigate the integrity of the U.S. Department of Agriculture aid to farmers affected by the U.S. trade war with China. Sen. Stabenow, who is ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, made the request to GAO in January after a Senate review found “deep inequities” in the distribution of the funds. The move comes as farmers and agribusinesses have expressed concerns with a lack of scrutiny into how the funds were divvied up. “At a time when virtually everyone in agriculture is under pressure, both from the macro factors facing the economy and also the trade wars, there is certainly a lot of focus on how USDA is dispersing payments, how it’s doing its math and determining what it believes to be fair and equitable,” Chuck Lippstreu, president of the Michigan Agri-Business Association, told MiBiz… “This is a picture-perfect example of the importance of congressional oversight,” Lippstreu said. “This is a great example of why it’s important to have leaders in Congress who are focused on agriculture and why it’s important for us to have Senator Stabenow on the Senate ag committee.” … Farmers who have been hit by the U.S. trade war with China have been issued about $28 billion in aid funding from the federal government since 2018. The most recent aid has come in the form of Market Facilitation Program (MFP) payments, which were distributed to farmers earning less than $900,000 a year who produced one of the agricultural products that faced retaliation from Chinese tariffs. The vast majority of the top MFP payment rates — about 95 percent — went to southern farmers, who have been harmed less than other regions, according to the Senate report… “All it takes is a look at the map to at least have legitimate questions about how the payment rates are laid out,” Lippstreu said. Access the full story here from MiBiz.
