Bills seek rollback in crop insurance subsidies
Supporters and the R Street Institute, a free-market think tank based in Washington, say current crop-insurance subsidies account for $62 of every $100 paid in crop-insurance premiums.
R Street Senior Fellow Andrew Moylan says the cost of federal crop-insurance subsidies have exploded in the past decade, going from $1.8 billion in 2001 to $7.5 billion last year.
He says the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the change would save taxpayers $40.1 billion over the next decade, a period when crop-insurance subsidies currently are projected to cost roughly $9.1 billion a year.
“What makes the crop-insurance program particularly troublesome is that, unlike other agricultural supports, the subsidies are neither means-tested nor subject to conservation-compliance requirements,” Moylan said.
“The end result is that 26 large agricultural producers each banked more than $1 million in crop-insurance subsidies in 2011, while 10,000 received more than $100,000,” he said. “Meanwhile, the program encourages farmers to convert to agricultural use that marginal land that is most subject to flood and erosion.”
