At the request of Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) supported by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) the U.S. Government Accountability Office will review the $128 billion distributed to the agricultural sector in partial compensation for the trade war with China.  Although the U.S. has signed a Phase-One trade agreement, China has not placed significant orders for U.S. agricultural commodities in accordance with their commitments.  In the short-term disruption in transport and port congestion appears to provide an excuse for delaying orders until later in 2020.  The occurrence of COVIN-19, the causal agent for the current outbreak has not affected limited purchases of soybeans by China from Brazil.

In a statement relating to the G.A.O. request Senator Stabenow opined, "it is clear that the Trump Administration trade assistance payments picked winners and losers rather than help the farmers who have been hardest hit by this President’s trade policies." 

Sen. Stabenow has requested that GAO to determine why payments were made disproportionally to large farm operations and the extent of fraud, waste and abuse in the program and whether the distribution of payments reflect trade damage that farmers experienced. The GAO has acknowledged the letter from Sen. Stabenow and indicated that it would comply with the request.