A major farm bill is now stalled in the House as members head back to their districts for their traditional break. This is a good thing. The measure approved by the Senate and by the House Agriculture committee with bipartisan support easily ranks as the worst major piece of domestic policy legislation to have a serious shot at passing a conservative chamber of Congress. The $957 billion bill—called the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act (or FARRM) by the House committee—fails to rein in entitlements, banishes the last vestiges of the free market from American agriculture, and threatens to harm the environment. Quite simply, this bill guts nearly all controls that would otherwise stop poorly conceived agricultural subsidies from spiraling out of control. Congress needs to reconsider the entire bill.

America’s complicated system of agricultural subsidies, regulations, and price controls has long stood on a corrupt log-rolling bargain. Urban Democrats in Congress have strongly supported subsidies and price supports for mostly Republican farm country in return for Republican support for a generous and ever-expanding Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), better known by its old name of “food stamps.”