Grassley, Johnson introduce bill to limit farm payments - KTIV News 4 Sioux City IA: News, Weather and Sports

Republican Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa and Democratic Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota are teaming up to help small farmers. They are among four senators who introduced legislation Monday that would place a hard cap on the farm payments an individual farmer can receive in a year.

The bill would establish a per-farm limit of $50,000 on all commodity program benefits, except those associated with the marketing loan program, which would be capped at $75,000. The combined limit would be $125,000 for individuals or $250,000 for married couples.

Grassley says it's a fight he's been fighting for ten years in Washington.

"The idea is to keep land prices down and to keep rents down so young farmers can get started because if the big farmers gobble up all the land and we're subsidizing it through the farm program, it makes it very difficult to get the next generation of farmers started," said Grassley.

Grassley said the measure would also close a loophole that he says has long been abused that allows non-farmers to qualify for federal farm payments.

The other sponsors of The Farm Program Integrity Act of 2013 are Republican Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming and Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio.