During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama promised to "implement a $250,000 payment limitation" for farm commodities, "so that we help family farmers, not large corporate agribusiness." He also pledged to "close the loopholes that allow megafarms to get around the limits by subdividing their operations into multiple paper corporations."

Obama's budgets have called for some payment reform, though not a $250,000 limit specifically. Nothing has passed Congress, but the Senate-passed farm bill does include a $250,000 payment limit. Technically, the bill caps "shallow loss payments," which protect farmers from smaller revenue losses than under existing federal crop insurance programs, at $100 for a married couple, while capping additional types of payments known as marketing loan gains and loan deficiency payments at $150,000 for a married couple, for a total cap of $250,000.

The Senate bill would also close the "loopholes that allow megafarms to get around the limits by subdividing their operations into multiple paper corporations," said Ferd Hoefner, policy director for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

The Senate bill is still pending in Congress, with action possible, but not likely, during the lame-duck Congress. If not passed before the end of 2012, it would likely be considered in 2013, but it would have to be re-filed, with no guarantee that these provisions would remain.

More importantly, though, the House version does not include these limits -- and any bill that advances needs to be reconciled between the two chambers. The opposition of one chamber makes their inclusion far from guaranteed.

On the loophole-closing portion of the promise, Hoefner added that the 2008 farm bill directed the executive branch to rewrite these provisions. President George W. Bush's administration made an attempt and did "minimal reform," Hoefner said, and the Obama administration did not carry the ball further.

It's possible that the pending farm bill could make this pledge a reality, but that seems like a long shot. If it does, we'll change our rating. Until then, we'll call this a Promise Broken.