The R Street Institute, a free-market think tank, interprets the extended family provision as allowing for “an unlimited number of distant relatives and their spouses to each collect up to $125,000 a year in subsidies, so long as they fill out the necessary paperwork.”

In a statement, R Street’s Caroline Kitchens says that “[l]awmakers should reject this package, pass a one-year extension of the current farm bill and go back to the drawing board in the 116th Congress to craft a new bill that considers the interests of taxpayers alongside those of special interests.”

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