USDA to claw back payments by cutting direct payments
March 19, 2013 | 05:47 PM
The Agriculture Department will be required to ask farmers to pay back $151 million under the sequester and will get that money mostly by reducing the direct payments that crop farmers get whether prices are high or low, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said today.
Under the sequester, which requires cutbacks in USDA spending, the agency will have to ask farmers to pay back money they have received under the Milk Income Loss Contract Program, the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments program known as SURE and the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance program.
Vilsack said that about 350,000 producers will be ask to pay back small amounts of money. But since more than 90 percent of them get direct payments, he said, the agency will simply reduce those payments rather than send the farmers notices to pay the money back to USDA.
“You know how difficult that is going to be, how irritating that is going to be,” Vilsack said in a speech to the Agribusiness Club. “We’re going to take a forward look and will take money from direct payments, therefore eliminating the need for producers to send a check.”
Under the sequester, which requires cutbacks in USDA spending, the agency will have to ask farmers to pay back money they have received under the Milk Income Loss Contract Program, the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments program known as SURE and the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance program.
Vilsack said that about 350,000 producers will be ask to pay back small amounts of money. But since more than 90 percent of them get direct payments, he said, the agency will simply reduce those payments rather than send the farmers notices to pay the money back to USDA.
“You know how difficult that is going to be, how irritating that is going to be,” Vilsack said in a speech to the Agribusiness Club. “We’re going to take a forward look and will take money from direct payments, therefore eliminating the need for producers to send a check.”
