After several weeks of deliberation, the Senate has finally passed its version of the Farm Bill.  FreedomWorks strongly opposes this bill - you can read our Key Vote HERE. Among the "accomplishments" of this bill:

• It is calculated to spend $950 billion over 10 years, a number that will certainly increase.
• It eliminates one entitlement program (direct payments), but replaces it with another that is even more unsustainable (shallow-loss crop insurance).
• It continues to bury one of the country's largest entitlement programs, food stamps, within the totally unrelated farm bill, preventing needed reforms to either bill.
• It continues to subsidize wealthy farm corporations disproportionally, giving those entities further advantage over small family farms.

Although Majority Leader Harry Reid had promised an open amendment process, in the end he only allowed a small number of picked amendments, and a overwhelming majority of the best fiscally responsible reforms were never even allowed on the floor for a vote. Just the latest example of Senator Reid's near-dictatorial rule over the Senate.

Sadly, eighteen Republicans voted to pass this bill, in spite of its massive cost and unconservative policies. You can see how your senators voted HERE. 

Perhaps worse are the senators who voted for "cloture" (to end debate and move toward passing the bill), but then voted against passing the bill - you can view the cloture vote HERE. Cloture requires 60 votes, so sometimes senators will vote for cloture, but then against passage (which requires only 50 votes) when their vote is no longer needed.  The GOP senators who were for the Farm Bill before voting against it:

Barrasso (WY)

Corker (TN)

Enzi (WY)

Kirk (IL)

Portman (OH)

Scott (SC)

Strangely, Senator Richard Burr (NC) voted against cloture, but then voted for final passage.

Be sure to let your Senators know your take on their votes, good or bad!

The fate of the Farm Bill now rests in the House, which has a chance to make crucial reforms to this catastrophe of a bill when it comes to the floor next week.