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Fudge Calls Out USDA Following GAO Report on Lopsided MFP Payments

Statement

Date: Sept. 15, 2020
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Trade Agriculture and Food

House Agriculture Subcommittee on Nutrition, Oversight, and Department Operations Chair Marcia L. Fudge of Ohio issued a statement Tuesday following a Government Accountability Office report outlining discrepancies in the levels of payments made to producers from different states and of different commodities as part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Market Facilitation Program.

"This GAO report shows that while the Trump Administration's trade war harmed farmers across the country, USDA's assistance has not been uniformly applied and the largest average MFP payments have instead gone to the Secretary's home state. These impacts, made worse by the Administration's lack of transparency on how these payment rates were determined, are what happens when the Administration declines to work with Congress and instead scrambles to throw money at farmers to clean up the mess made by the President and his trade war."


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