Rep. Spartz’s Checkoff Transparency Amendment passes House

Submitted by Office of U.S. Rep. Victoria Spartz

On Thursday, April 30, Congresswoman Victoria Spartz’s (R-Ind.-05) amendment to increase transparency for commodity checkoff boards passed the House and will be included in the Farm Bill.

Checkoffs are taxes on farmers mandated by Congress and have been known to be abused by some boards to pay lavish salaries to executives or lobby for Big Ag against small farmers instead of helping them,” Rep. Spartz said. “Hardworking farmers deserve transparency and accountability to know how their hard-earned money is spent.”

This amendment requires the U.S. Department of Agriculture to publicly post key financial information for checkoff boards, including audit reports for the previous five years, updated annually.

The checkoff is a mandatory fee that many U.S. farmers pay every time they sell any of 22 major commodities for research and promotion purposes. Checkoff programs were originally voluntary where farmers could check off a box to pay into the shared fund, but eventually Congress made these fees mandatory. These programs collect roughly $1B annually and have been involved in a number of abuse and corruption scandals over the years.

Click here to read the full text of the amendment.