Hartzler, Huelskamp in Farm Subsidy Spolight

‘Politico’ reports commodity prices are near all-time highs, an anti-spending mission dominates among the House majority and the House Agriculture Committee is packed with 15 GOP freshmen, some of whom were swept into office backed by a tea party movement that seemed poised to slash everything — including crop subsidies.

But it’s an open question whether these freshmen will move to slash the sacred cow of farm subsidies — as several of the rookies themselves have received hundreds of thousands in subsidies over the years, including some on the Agriculture Committee, which will debate a farm bill in the coming year.

One of the top subsidy recipients among GOP rookies is Missouri Rep. Vicky Hartzler, (Mo-4) who with her husband, Lowell, received $774,489 from 1995 through 2009 for their family farm, according to USDA data compiled by the Environmental Working Group. Indiana Rep. Marlin Stutzman’s farm received $179,370.13 in the same period. Ohio Rep. Bob Gibbs’s farm got $27,304.59.

Kansas Rep. Tim Huelskamp, (Ks-1) by any measure one of the party’s most conservative members, took a bit of federal cash — just $258 in a disaster relief payment. But according to the Environmental Working Group, H & H Farms, which is owned by Huelskamps’ parents, received $1,169,499 in federal farm subsidies from 1995 to 2009.

These freshmen, now on the Agriculture Committee, will bring these experiences to bear when deciding how and where to slash farm subsidies long derided by conservatives and good government groups as corporate welfare. With a GOP spending blueprint that the Budget Committee says should save $30 billion from the farm program over the next decade, the freshmen say they know cuts are coming — but they don’t want farmers to be disproportionately hit.