Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 5/24/18

If a farm bill amendment from Rep. Mark Meadows to limit commodity payments to farmers had made it past the Rules committee last week, "we would have fought that off had they brought it to the floor," House Ag Chairman Mike Conaway said Wednesday in a radio interview with "Adams on Agriculture." Conaway has long defended commodity support payments made by USDA which partly aim to help farmers facing declining crop prices.

Grassley's target on loopholes: Sen. Chuck Grassley said this week he wants to include a provision in the Senate farm bill that goes after loopholes in commodity support regulations that allow people to rake in cash even if they don't work on farms. "It is simply not smart to make it easy for people who do not work on farms to get $125,000 free from taxpayers," Grassley said, referencing a GAO report revealing that USDA made $2.7 billion in payments in 2015.

Conaway snaps back: "With all due respect to Senator Grassley, he's wrong," Conaway said. "He's wrong every single time."

The Texas Republican said he won't be making any changes to his farm bill, which faces a June 22 deadline to be reconsidered by the House. "We're going to get our bill as is, and then Pat Roberts, who has to have eight or nine Democratic votes, his bill will be different from ours, and then we go to conference."