GAO Opening Investigation into USDA’s Market Facilitation Program

WASHINGTON, DC – Acting at the request of Senator Debbie Stabenow (MI-D), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee the Government Accountability Office (GAO) is opening an investigation into USDA’s Market Facilitation Program (MFP). Stabenow has for months complained that the payments are going to Southern growers who have not been affected as much as other farmers by trade disruptions. “It’s clear that the Trump Administration’s trade assistance payments pick winners and losers rather than help the farmers who have been hit the hardest by this President’s trade policies,” she said this week. According to a press release from Stabenow’s office, the investigation will examine whether the model USDA used to distribute payments has accurately reflected trade damages felt by farmers; if and how higher payment limits have increased payments to large complex farm operations; and, whether USDA is effectively preventing fraud, waste and abuse in the program.