(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is introducing a bill today (Tuesday) which he says will help to rein in billions of dollars in Biden administration spending that’s siphoning money away from vital farm programs. Grassley, a Republican, is calling it the U-S Department of Agriculture Spending Accountability Act. “The bill limits spending from that part of the U.S.D.A. called the Commodity Credit Corporation,” Grassley says, “and it would limit the C.C.C. to spending money only on programs authorized by Congress.”

Grassley says the legislation is designed to stop the U-S-D-A from undermining the role of Congress in writing the upcoming Farm Bill. “Over the past few years, secretaries of agriculture have used excess funds in the CCC for their own agenda,” Grassley says. “It’s become one of the most costly tools in the farm safety net.” He says the Biden administration is using this agricultural loophole as a blank check to pay for a host of unapproved programs, which Grassley says includes the president’s “environmental agenda.”

“Without these new controls, the Biden administration can simply fund its priorities using the C.C.C.,” Grassley says, “even if Congress rejects them in the upcoming Farm Bill.” He says the bill would save eight-billion dollars. Given the debt and deficit, Grassley says they “need to find savings in every nook and cranny of the Farm Bill.”