February 26, 2010 8:24AM # When Bipartisanship Is Good News By [Sallie James](https://www.cato.org/people/sallie-james) --- SHARE Usually when I hear that a policy proposal has bipartisan support, I instinctively check for my wallet. But I greeted with pleasure the news on Wednesday that two lawmakers — Rep. Scott Garrett (R, NJ) and Rep. Patrick Murphy (D, PA) — had introduced a bill to [shut down the USDA’s Market Access Program](http://garrett.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=173397), which the congressmen rightly paint as “corporate welfare to big business.” I yield to no one in my abhorrence of trade barriers, here and abroad. But this program is less about addressing market access *per se*, and more about taxpayer funding of marketing campaigns, trade shows and other promotions, which surely are the responsibility of the firms/​industries concerned. Incidentally, the Market Access Program is a line item in one of many [agricultural programs identified by our Tax and Budget team as being ripe for the chopping block](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/agriculture/proposed-cuts). ##### Related Tags [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy), [Trade Policy](https://www.cato.org/trade-policy), [Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies](https://www.cato.org/herbert-stiefel-center-trade-policy-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).