CEI supports prohibition on multi-billion-dollar government slush fund in agriculture appropriations bill

The House of Representatives is set to vote on H.R. 4368, the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2024, later this week. While CEI is not taking a position on the overall bill, E&E deputy director Daren Bakst released a statement strongly supporting a provision in the bill that would stop bipartisan governmental abuses of the Commodity Credit Corporation.

Deputy Director of CEI’s Center for Energy and Environment Daren Bakst said:

“The House appropriations committee should be commended for addressing recent bipartisan abuses of the Commodity Credit Corporation. Specifically, in both the Trump and Biden administrations, Agriculture Secretaries have been using the Commodity Credit Corporation as a slush fund to spend billions of dollars to create programs out of whole cloth, without Congressional approval.

“From 2012-2017, there were riders in agriculture appropriations bills to ensure that such abuses didn’t occur. But once the riders were removed, the abuse really kicked in. Most recently, the Biden administration has been turning the Commodity Credit Corporation into a climate change slush fund and trying to get farmers to grow crops in the administration’s preferred manner. H.R. 4368, and specifically language in Section 714, would stop these governmental abuses and ensure that Congress properly retains its spending power under the U.S. Constitution.”

More from CEI:

• Bakst: Congress must end this multibillion-dollar government slush fund