Page 294

to transforming the food system on its web site and other department-disseminated material, and it should expressly and regularly communicate the principles informing the objectives listed above, as well as promote these principles through legislative efforts. The USDA should also carefully review existing efforts that involve inappropriately imposing its preferred agricultural practices onto farmers.

Address the Abuse of CCC Discretionary Authority. With the exception of federal crop insurance, the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) is generally the means by which agricultural-related farm bill programs are funded. The CCC isa funding mechanism, which, in simple terms, has $30 billion a year at its disposal.”*

Section 5 of the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act (Charter Act)” gives the Secretary of Agriculture broad discretionary authority to spend “unused” CCC money. However, in general, past Agriculture Secretaries have not used this power to any meaningful extent. This changed dramatically during the Trump Administration, when this discretionary authority was used to fund $28 billion in “trade aid” to farmers, consisting primarily of the Market Facilitation Program. In 2020, this authority was used for $20.5 billion in food purchases and income subsidies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.”°

At the time, critics warned that this use of the CCC, which in effect created a USDA slush fund, would lead future Administrations to abuse the CCC, such as by pushing climate-change policies.” Predictably, this is precisely what the Biden Administration has done, using the discretionary authority to create programs out of whole cloth, arguably without statutory authority,” for what it refers to as climate-smart agricultural practices.”

The merits of the various programs funded through the CCC discretionary authority is not the focus of this discussion. The major problem is that the Secretary of Agriculture is empowered to use a slush fund. Billions of dollars are being used for programs that Congress never envisioned or intended.

Concern about this type of abuse is not new. In fact, from 2012 to 2017, Congress expressly limited the Agriculture Secretary’s discretionary spending authority under the Charter Act.*° And this was before the recent massive discretionary CCC spending occurred.

The use of the discretionary power is a separation of powers problem, with Congress abrogating its spending power. This power is ripe for abuse—as could be expected with any slush fund—and it is a possible way to get around the farm bill process to achieve policy goals not secured during the legislative process.

The next Administration should:

• =©6Refrain from using section 5 discretionary authority. The USDA can

address this abuse on its own by following the lead of most Administrations and not using this discretionary authority.