It's no secret that wealthy people can get federal farm subsidies, but now, for the first time, Agriculture Department data makes it easier to see exactly who benefits from the nation's generous farm subsidy program.
Instead of having to sift through a complex web of corporations, partnerships and other business entities, the USDA has assigned a specific dollar amount to the individuals behind the businesses.
The Environmental Working Group, a public interest group that has long pushed for more equitable distribution of farm subsidies, has compiled the data and posted it online for users. Ken Cook, the group's president, said he hopes the new information will help spur reforms as Congress and the Bush administration consider what a new multibillion-dollar farm bill should look like.
"It really does raise the question 'Why shouldn't we at least impose some sort of reasonable test of means before we disperse all this money?'\ " Cook said.
The database includes about 358,000 beneficiaries who received $9.8 billion in crop subsidy benefits between 2003 and 2005. The list includes Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen, whose net worth of $18 billion makes him the fifth-richest person in the U.S., according to Forbes magazine; Texas oilman and billionaire Lee Bass; and former Bulls star Scottie Pippen.
Allen received an estimated $30,687 from 2003 to 2005, according to Cook's group. During the same period, Bass received $242,787 in subsidies and Pippen received $78,945.
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said the new data could affect farm bill negotiations this year as lawmakers consider reducing direct payments to farmers.
"It's going to be harder than ever before to defend the status quo," he said. "I think the defenders of big payments, their position is going to be severely weakened."
But many lawmakers remain skeptical of means tests for the subsidies.
"Some people are fixated on this," said Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. "It would be good for lawyers and accountants. I don't know if it's good for anyone else."
The current farm bill, which expires Sept. 30, limits farmers to $360,000 in subsidies per year, but that ceiling is filled with loopholes that allow many farms to exceed it.
The Bush administration has proposed closing the loopholes and halting subsidies to anyone making more than $200,000 in adjusted gross income. Last month, Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) introduced legislation that would cap individual farm payments at $250,000.
According to the environmental group's analysis of the data, 10 percent of farmers received 66 percent of federal farm payments from 2002-05.
It's not just wealthy individuals who get farm subsidies. State governments are reaping the benefits too. In Arkansas, for example, the state's Department of Correction was the top subsidy beneficiary, pulling in nearly $2.3 million from 2003-05. The University of Illinois was first in Illinois, with nearly $1.3 million in payments for the three-year period.