NEW: Loeffler’s Family Has Taken Millions in Farm Subsidies as She Rails Against Relief for Out-of-Work Georgians

Scandal-plagued Senator’s family got large federal government farm subsidies while Loeffler herself has opposed relief for Georgians

ATLANTA — A new report today lays out how unelected “political mega-donor” Senator Kelly Loeffler’s family has taken “millions in subsidies” — including from CARES Act funds — even while Loeffler herself has fought against expanded unemployment relief in the Senate.

Loeffler’s family has taken “more than $3.2 million in federal benefits since 1995” through farm subsidies, including over $770,000 since 2018. Some of this also includes payments from the CARES Act as a result of the ongoing pandemic as well as relief from President Donald Trump’s reckless trade war that threatened Georgia farmers.

Yet despite the generous amounts of federal benefits that Loeffler’s family has received, the senator not only voted against expanded unemployment relief in the CARES Act but even claimed she’s “not seeing a big need” to restore now-expired unemployment benefits which she’s attacked as “government dependency” in the midst of a recession and ongoing pandemic.

Loeffler has a long track record of putting herself first in the coronavirus outbreak. She was infamously caught selling off millions in stocks as she and her husband invested in a telework firm and “a company that makes COVID-19 protective garments” even as she publicly tried to downplay the crisis. And her vast financial holdings still make her “a walking conflict of interest” as she remains on the critical Senate Agriculture Committee that serves as “an overseer of the overseers of the company that made her rich.”

Read the full report on the Loeffler family’s subsidies from the federal government:

American Prospect: Ultra-Rich Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s Family Has Taken In $3 Million in Farm Subsidies

• Today, Loeffler is worth roughly $500 million. Her husband founded a stock exchange (Intercontinental Exchange, or ICE) and remains its chairman and CEO; she has a majority stake in a WNBA franchise. They live in a 15,000-square-foot estate in Atlanta.

• Meanwhile, the Loeffler family farm continues to operate, and several of Loeffler’s family members continue to pull in significant sums of money from government agriculture subsidies.

• Five of her family members have received more than $3.2 million in federal benefits since 1995. A significant share of that, $770,242, has come since 2018, as a result of farm bailout funds that President Trump has offered to compensate for the trade war with China and the pandemic.

• The nature of the farm subsidy program itself hardly aligns with Loeffler’s election campaign promotion of herself as “more conservative than Attila the Hun.”

• Extended family members can take an on-paper share of the ownership in a farm and become eligible themselves for annual payments, as has apparently happened in the Loeffler family case.

• While she’s not obligated to personally bail out her family, her public policy posture of calling for reducing $600 a week payments to unemployed workers, so they can “get back to work and limit government dependency,” is a tough fit with the millions in government welfare flowing to her family members.

• Since 1995, Don [Loeffler] has received $1,284,673 in federal government funds for crop subsidies, and Lynda has received $214,746.

• The couple retired in 2015, according to this local newspaper announcement of their 50th wedding anniversary. Despite that, Don continued to receive subsidies through federal conservation programs in subsequent years, totaling close to $6,000.

• Molly Loeffler began to receive farm subsidies in 2008, after her marriage to Brian [Loeffler]. Her lifetime total is $671,142. A son, Collin Loeffler, also has received $16,454 in subsidies, starting in 2013. His age is undisclosed.

• Brian Loeffler and his wife applied for and received $744,968 in MFP payments in 2018 and 2019, according to EWG records. Collin Loeffler also received $11,089. In addition, the Loefflers received $17,560 in CFAP payments through June 30 of this year. Molly Loeffler’s receipt of $375,000 under MFP represents the maximum amount allowable in 2018 and 2019 for that program.

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