Sen. Boozman says USDA improperly raised CRP payment rates

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Sen. Boozman says USDA improperly raised CRP payment rates

The top Republican on the Senate Ag Committee says the USDA has violated the 2018 farm bill by increasing payment rates for the Conservation Reserve Program.

In a letter Thursday to Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack, Arkansas Senator John Boozman says landowners who enroll in contracts by today under the new rates would be invalid and litigating the adjustments will “only cause more delay and more harm” and leave producers in “disarray.”

Boozman says the contracts maybe invalid because the 2018 legislation enacted limits on rates and authorizes the Secretary to meet the maximum rate but not exceed it as what’s happening now.  

USDA used a 10 percent inflationary adjustment rate to the county payment rates and set a minimum payment rate for CRP grasslands to $15 an acre.

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