USDA to give $16 billion in direct farmer payments, with up to $250,000 and maybe more for individual farmers

"President Donald Trump on Friday announced a $19 billion economic rescue package for farmers and ranchers that will include sending out cash payments as well as buying farm products and redistributing them to food banks," Ryan McCrimmon reports for Politico. "The stimulus plan is the latest in a long string of recent ad hoc relief efforts for the agricultural economy. Trump has pulled out the stops to bail out farmers and ranchers stung by his own trade war and biofuel policies, in addition to long-term economic headwinds."

Farmers could get up to $250,000 each, and maybe more, reports Chuck Abbott of Successful Farming: "The only ineligible people would be those with more than $900,000 in adjusted gross income and those who get more than 25 percent of their income outside of agriculture. The payment limits are double the cap set by Congress for traditional farm subsidies and may be as porous, said critics. Spouses are automatically eligible for crop subsidies, so married couples can collect twice as much as the individual payment limit. The USDA has not decided if spouses will be eligible automatically for coronavirus aid. If they are, the limit per farm couple would be $500,000. If producers are partners in other farming entities, they could receive money from federal payments to those entities."

Senate Agriculture Appropriations Committee chair John Hoeven, R-N.D., issued a statement with more details on how the $16 billion will be divided up. The livestock industry will receive $9.6 billion, subdivided into $5.1 billion for cattle, $2.9 billion for dairy, and $1.6 billion for hogs. Row crop producers will receive $3.9 billion, specialty crop producers will receive $2.1 billion, and other crops will receive $500 million.

The package has $16 billion in direct aid and $3 billion for the Department of Agriculture to buy surplus food to give to food banks and other groups. That money comes from "a combination of the new spending authority from Congress included in the stimulus package and existing funds," McCrimmon reports. Trump said an additional $14 billion in aid would be available in July."