Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Tim Johnson (D-SD) have introduced legislation that would place a hard cap on the farm payments an individual farmer could receive in a year and would close loopholes in the farm payment program. The bill would place a hard cap of $250,000 per married couple on annual federal commodity program payments of any kind, including a hard cap on marketing loan gains of $75,000 ($150,000 for a couple). Senator Grassley said, “The largest operators should not be banking on Uncle Sam to help underwrite their efforts to get even bigger. It creates an unfair burden on taxpayers and makes it even harder for beginning farmers to compete. Already, the current system is contributing to upward pressure on land prices that squeeze beginning farmers out of the market.”