U-S Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will appear before the U-S Senate Committee on Agriculture on Thursday to anser questions and to offer testimony regarding the new farm bill legislation.  U-S Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa says he is concerned with the majority of allotments from federal farm payments that go to a small percentage of farmers.

Grassley says he wants to ask Secretary Vilsack how the USDA can have the farm payment program work for all farmers, and not just the super large farming operations.  Grassley says Vilsack and the U-S Department of Agriculture have created additional programs that were intended to help small size farmers, but instead has benefitted large corporations.

Grassley is again advocating for a cap of farm payments at $250,000 per farming operation.