Taxpayer Watchdog Slams Farm Bill, Calls for End to Farm Subsidies

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Kara Zupkus (224) 456-0257

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) sharply criticized H.R. 7567, the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 (commonly known as the “Farm Bill”). After high-profile disputes over key provisions—including a failed effort to prohibit states from creating pesticide labeling laws that differ from Environmental Protection Agency guidance—the bill passed the House in a 224-200 vote. Despite the national debt approaching $40 trillion, lawmakers voted to maintain taxpayer handouts to large agribusinesses.

In response to the bill’s passage, Ross Marchand, Executive Director at TPA, offered the following comment:

“This Farm Bill is the height of irresponsible governance. The bloated farm programs in this legislation have drifted far from their original purpose and now represent a steady transfer of taxpayer dollars to a narrow slice of well-connected agricultural interests. Today, taxpayers are on the hook for more than $20 billion annually across crop insurance subsidies, direct payments, disaster aid, and conservation programs that often overlap or duplicate one another. Thanks to today’s vote, this total will keep increasing. Lawmakers need to separate the wheat from the chaff and end these wasteful programs.

 “The Farm Bill also maintains harmful trade barriers that keep costs high for farmers and their millions of consumers. Tariffs imposed on phosphate fertilizers in 2021 by the U.S. International Trade Commission, along with tariffs and quotas imposed under the sugar program, have led to historically high food prices. Unfortunately, House Republicans refused to allow a vote on an amendment to the Farm Bill by Rep. Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) that would have prohibited duties on phosphate fertilizer imports. Consumers deserve better than arcane trade policies that benefit the wealthy few at the expense of the many.

“Lawmakers need to ditch taxpayer handouts and sugar and fertilizer protectionism and put taxpayers and consumers first. Federal farm programs have long outlived their usefulness and ought to be put out to pasture.”

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The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis, and dissemination of information on the government’s impact on the economy.