With a bitter debate over farm subsidies expected on the House floor this week, the Department of Agriculture is under siege for its slapdash distribution of payments.

According to findings released yesterday by the Government Accountability Office, the USDA “sent $1.1 billion in farm payments to more than 170,000 dead people over a seven-year period” from 1999 to 2005.

The auditors concluded that of the payments collected by the estates of deceased farmers, 40 percent went to those whose owners had been dead for over three years, and 19 percent to those whose owners had died more than seven years earlier.

“Given extremely tight budget restraints, it is no longer tolerable to permit billions of dollars in farm bill payments to go to individuals who in stances don’t even farm or are no longer alive,” said Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin.

In light of the report, the Iowa Democrat is calling for lower ceilings and stricter limits on farm subsidies, giving hope to those calling for a substantive overhaul of the Farm Bill that would benefit small business farmers in the U.S. as well as millions of farmers in less developed countries around the world.