U.S. taxpayers spent nearly $7 million last year promoting California wine overseas, and millions of dollars more to advertise agricultural products like raisins and citrus fruits. The money was spent through the Market Access Program, which has benefited individual companies and trade associations and has drawn fire from critics who see it as wasteful.
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Muskogee, released a report about the program last year identifying numerous examples of taxpayer dollars being spent on behalf of profitable corporations.
In a recent analysis, Taxpayers for Common Sense said, "Many examples of corporate welfare can be found in the federal budget, but few are as wasteful as the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Market Access Program (MAP).
"Since its inception in 1978, MAP has spent billions of taxpayer dollars subsidizing overseas advertising campaigns, product demonstrations, and exhibitions for well-off agribusinesses and trade associations. Recipients include well-known companies (or their grower-cooperatives) such as McDonald's, Nabisco, Welch Foods, Blue Diamond Growers, Sunkist, and organizations like the Brewers Association Inc. and Cotton Council International."
Among Coburn's targets was the Blue Diamond Growers - almond producers that dominate the market in the United States and post hundreds of millions of dollars in sales each year. Those growers, Coburn reported, have collected more than $28 million in taxpayer subsidies since 1999 to promote their products internationally.
The House and Senate are working on long-term farm legislation that could include renewing funding for the MAP program and others - like the Emerging Markets Program - that Coburn and outside groups say are duplicative.
Coburn noted that the funding has Washington-based lobbying behind it, as many of the agribusinesses that benefit belong to trade associations that employ Capitol Hill lobbyists.
President Barack Obama's budget for the next fiscal year includes $200 million for the program, the same as the last two years, but has no funding for the Emerging Markets Program or the Foreign Market Development Program.
Written by: Chris Casteel, Washington Bureau
Original Publication URL: http://newsok.com/washington-notes-for-may-5/article/3806752?custom_click=pod_headline_usnational-news
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