{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=65796256-2A88-4978-8FC6-50A1668CEA6C", "Boozman: \u201cTimely and Urgent Response\u201d Needed to Stave Off Looming Farm Crisis", "2024-09-17", "2024", "2024-09", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "John Boozman", "B001236", "www.boozman.senate.gov", "boozman", "https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON\u2014 U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR), ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, called for Congress and the administration to provide a \u201ctimely and urgent response\u201d to the looming farm crisis in the form of emergency assistance to farmers and called for a redoubling of efforts to pass a farm bill before the end of the calendar year in a speech on the Senate floor.\n\nOn emergency assistance, Boozman said, \u201cFarmers across the country need a bridge to help their family farms survive into next year. We\u2019ve seen previous ad-hoc assistance programs established in a period of weeks, as demonstrated by then Secretary [Sonny] Perdue when the COVID-19 pandemic created disruptions for producers. That level of timely and urgent response by Congress and the administration is once again warranted.\u201d\n\nBoozman then turned his attention to the stalled farm bill talks.\n\n\u201cThe next farm bill is the appropriate place to make the necessary long-term corrections to our farm safety net, but farmers need timely support addressing 2024 losses as they enter the winter months when they make planting decisions and secure financing for the upcoming crop year,\u201d Boozman said. \u201cWe must redouble our efforts to pass a farm bill, before the end of the calendar year, that meets this moment \u2013 one that provides the support our farmers desperately need to stay in business. I am committed to sitting down with my counterparts for as long as it takes to hash out a deal that our members can support.\u201d\n\nThe following are Boozman\u2019s remarks as prepared:\n\nMr. President,\n\nLast week hundreds of farmers and ranchers, from all regions of our country, representing operations of all sizes and all the major crops, traveled to Capitol Hill to encourage us to pass a strong farmer-focused farm bill before the end of this year.\n\nI met with many of these individuals, and I am grateful they took time away from their families and their farms and ranches to tell us what was at stake if Congress fails to pass a farm bill this year.\n\nFor these farmers, this trip came with the additional stress of being away from the farm at the height of harvest season.\n\nTheir visits clearly articulated the anxiety gripping farm country at this crucial moment.\n\nFor the past few months, farmers, ranchers, the organizations who represent them, and the agricultural banking sector, have all warned of an impending crisis in farm county.\n\nProducers are struggling to make ends meet in an environment where costs for farm inputs have ballooned from inflation, interest rates have doubled and market prices are far below the cost of production.\n\nCoupled with consecutive years of losses, the financial stress borne, particularly, by our row crop farmers is now being revealed.\n\nThe reality is there will be fewer farmers in 2025 if Congress does not respond.\n\nWe have been warned that many farmers will struggle to secure operating loans for next year.\n\nThis is a devastating realization.\n\nThe outdated farm safety net they are operating under is doing nothing to address these realities.\n\nThat is why the Senate needs to take two immediate actions.\n\nFirst, we need to provide emergency assistance to address the economic losses that farmers are facing associated with the 2024 crop.\n\nEven with record yields, farmers are still not breaking even.\n\nThis is not a crisis they can produce, insure, or conserve their way out of.\n\nFarmers across the country need a bridge to help their family farms survive into next year.\n\nWe\u2019ve seen previous ad-hoc assistance programs established in a period of weeks, as demonstrated by then Secretary Perdue when the COVID-19 pandemic created disruptions for producers.\n\nThat level of timely and urgent response by Congress and the administration is once again warranted.\n\nIn southern states like Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas, many producers have harvested their 2024 crop and many are losing hundreds of dollars per acre of ground they farm.\n\nThat same experience is beginning to creep into the Midwest and northern states as harvest begins in these regions.\n\nWhat do losses of this magnitude translate to?\n\nNot only are producers not able to pay their bills, but they won\u2019t be able to secure an operating loan for next year\u2019s crop, let alone have any income at all to survive on.\n\nThis has devastating ripple effects on rural businesses and communities.\n\nLet me be clear, emergency assistance does not reduce the need to make meaningful investments to the commodity and crop insurance titles of the next farm bill.\n\nIn fact, the clear necessity of providing ad hoc assistance for economic losses demonstrates how inadequate the 2018 farm bill is.\n\nThe next farm bill is the appropriate place to make the necessary long-term corrections to our farm safety net, but farmers need timely support addressing 2024 losses as they enter the winter months when they make planting decisions and secure financing for the upcoming crop year.\n\nWhich leads me to the second action Congress must take: we must redouble our efforts to pass a farm bill, before the end of the calendar year, that meets this moment \u2013 one that provides the support our farmers desperately need to stay in business.\n\nI am committed to sitting down with my counterparts for as long as it takes to hash out a deal that our members can support.\n\nI was encouraged to see House Ag Committee Ranking Member David Scott make a similar appeal last week.\n\nI know our respective Chairs are eager to pass a bill this session of Congress.\n\nThe window to make that happen is closing quickly.\n\nOur family farmers are staring down a crisis that is growing more dire by the day and many fear that the Senate simply doesn\u2019t care about their plight.\n\nMr. President, you and I both know that is far from the truth.\n\nI know my colleagues want to make sure our farmers can continue to produce the safest, most affordable and most abundant supply of food, fuel and fiber in the world.\n\nBut without action, it is an understandable sentiment.\n\nSenate Ag Committee Republicans have been sounding the alarm on this brewing crisis for months.\n\nIt is the very reason we have been adamant about the need for more farm in the farm bill.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:46:43Z"]], "columns": ["url", 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