Senate Hearing Held Oversight of Government Tax Policy in Farm Country

News Date August 01, 2007

Last week, the Senate Finance Committee held a hearing entitled "Oversight of Government Tax Policy in Farm Country." Led by Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), the committee heard testimony regarding crop disaster relief, farm labor, and other rural finances. Key witnesses included National Farmers Union President Tom Buis; a specialist in immigration policy from the Congressional Research Service, Alison Siskin; and a liaison from the Government Accountability Office, Lisa Shames.

Most notably, the committee echoed the witness' sentiments of establishing permanent crop disaster assistance. As noted by Buis, "Farmers don't farm in the aggregate. Even when the ag industry as a whole is making money, some farmers can be hurting." Senators appeared to accept the program's necessity and were prepared to seek out funding and implementation methods.

The Finance Committee also heard testimony on the suitability of ending the exemption of foreign workers from paying into the Social Security program. Siskin stated that "the provision [would increase] payroll tax revenue by approximately $521 million in 2008."

The committee subsequently considered an assortment of financially based issues. On July 24, 2007, the GAO reported that between 1999 and 2005 the USDA had paid over one billion dollars in crop payments to deceased farmers' estates. The GAO also reported that 17 percent of these payments were made to individuals that had been deceased for seven or more years. Senators discussed steps the USDA is taking to ameliorate these oversights. Finally, the Committee briefly deliberated the tax treatment of CRP revenue, the effect of the estate tax on farming and ranching, and alternate ways to depreciate farm equipment.