{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.hydesmith.senate.gov/legislative-session-american-agriculture", "LEGISLATIVE SESSION--American Agriculture", "2025-10-15", "2025", "2025-10", "Republican", "Senate", "MS", "Cindy Hyde-Smith", "H001079", "www.hydesmith.senate.gov", "hydesmith", "https://www.hydesmith.senate.gov/newsroom", "scraper", "Congressional Record Vol. 171, No. 170\n\n(Senate - October 15, 2025) PDF\n\nThe PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Mississippi.\n\nAmerican Agriculture\n\nMrs. HYDE-SMITH. Mr. President, I rise today to highlight a growing\n\ncrisis that threatens our farmers, rural communities, food security,\n\nand our national economy. I am concerned that as American agriculture\n\nand rural communities face very hard times, many Americans are unaware\n\nof the stakes ahead.\n\nHere is the bottom line. American agriculture is in serious trouble,\n\nand Congress must act now with short-term assistance.\n\nThat is not hyperbole. I continue to hear from producers in\n\nMississippi and across the country that the numbers don't add up and\n\nthe outlook is grim. Without immediate action, we risk losing not only\n\nfarms but also the rural communities and the food security they\n\nprovide. This is no longer a warning; it is an emergency.\n\nOver the past three crop years, rising input costs for seed,\n\nfertilizer, fuel, labor, and more have collided with falling commodity\n\nprices and high interest rates. Even with strong crop yields this year,\n\nmany farmers are facing losing between $100 and $400 per acre. For a\n\n2,000-acre farm, that is a financial hit in the hundreds of thousands\n\nand sometimes millions of dollars in losses. Farm bankruptcies have\n\nalready surpassed last year's total, and if we do not step in, that\n\ntrend will accelerate.\n\nThe ripple effect is real. In small towns across America, family\n\nfarms are the economic engine. When farms thrive, so do local grocery\n\nstores, schools, equipment dealers, banks, and churches. When farms\n\nfail, the community fails with them. Jobs disappear. Families leave.\n\nMain Street goes silent.\n\nWe have seen this before. In the 1980s, a generation of farmers was\n\nnearly wiped out by high interest rates, collapsing markets, and\n\ninadequate safety nets. Today's producers are starting to feel those\n\nsame pressures. Bankers, economists, and lenders are sounding the alarm\n\nagain.\n\nWhile we may differ on policy, we must agree on the urgent need to\n\nact while we still have time to do that. The significant updates we\n\nsecured in the reconciliation process this summer will strengthen the\n\nfarm safety net, and I am proud of that progress. But those changes\n\nwon't take effect until next fall. That is too late for many farmers\n\nalready on the brink. We need short-term assistance now to help\n\nproducers survive the coming crop year.\n\nLet me be crystal clear: Farmers do not want a handout; they want a\n\nfair shot.\n\nFood security is national security. We cannot afford to lose a\n\ngeneration of American farmers or become dependent on foreign countries\n\nto feed and clothe us. That is a risk that we cannot take.\n\nOver the long term, we know American agriculture will be stronger if\n\nwe secure fairer trade deals and build stable markets at home and\n\nabroad.\n\nOur competitors--China, Argentina, Brazil, and others--are moving\n\naggressively. I believe that if we don't act quickly, we will lose\n\nvital export opportunities and long-term stability for our producers.\n\nIn this world of global competition, we must revive American-grown\n\ncotton to be the center of our supply chains, providing reliable\n\nmarkets for our producers and bolstering industries that depend on\n\ncotton.\n\nI introduced the Buying American Cotton Act to help us get there by\n\nincentivizing U.S. retailers to produce, purchase, and manufacture\n\nAmerican cotton here at home. This legislation would help secure a\n\nresilient, self-reliant, and prosperous cotton industry for the future\n\nby reinforcing our supply chain--from farm to textile, to market--and\n\nby reducing our reliance on cotton produced under forced labor\n\npractices and environmental destruction.\n\nI call on this body to consider this legislation as we seek long-term\n\nsolutions to the problems that beset American farmers today.\n\nI am encouraged by the bipartisan work underway to complete a 5-year\n\nreauthorization of the farm bill, which is long overdue.\n\nLast winter, we secured farm support funding, which was a lifeline\n\nfor many of our farmers this crop year, but the crisis hasn't passed.\n\nFarmers are still facing impossible choices about whether they can\n\nafford to plant next year or even to stay in business at all. I fully\n\nsupport ongoing work to provide additional Federal bridge funding\n\nbefore the end of the year to ensure more of our family farms can stay\n\nin business.\n\nWe all represent different sectors of American agriculture, but the\n\ncrisis does not discriminate. It spans commodities, regions, and party\n\nlines. What matters now is that we come together with urgency and with\n\npurpose.", 1, "2026-09-16T09:43:13Z", "2026-09-16T09:44:22Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.hydesmith.senate.gov/legislative-session-american-agriculture"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.9461838528513908, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}