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Grassley: deal with farm bill soon

Senator Charles Grassley supports Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow’s desire to move the farm bill sooner rather than later. The GOP lawmaker from Iowa predicts markup after returning from the Easter recess. Grassley, who farms in Iowa, says farm policy should be market oriented.

“We don’t need anything that causes farmers to farm for the farm program and not the marketplace, because that change was back in the mid-1990s,” said Grassley, Wednesday, during a conference call to reporters. “We don’t want to go back to the pre-90s farm programs where there was so much government decision making; let the farmers farm according to the marketplace now.”

Senator Grassley says what he hears most from farm groups visiting his office is to do no harm to crop insurance, which, he says is supported by his Senate Agriculture Committee colleagues.