Cutting Direct Payments

It's always interesting to a born bureaucrat to see how lawyers will implement policy proposals.  We're getting an indication of how reductions in direct payments might be made from today's Farm Policy: changing the definition of "payment acres" for 2011.  Specifically:

(3) by adding at the end the following: ‘‘(C) in the case of direct payments for the 2012 crop year, 59 percent of the base acres for the covered commodity on a farm on which direct payments are made.’’.

My reaction: should be easy to implement, which is the prime consideration for a bureaucrat.