{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.marshall.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senator-marshall-democrats-are-blocking-the-farm-bill/", "Senator Marshall: Democrats Are Blocking the Farm Bill", "2026-08-06", "2026", "2026-08", "Republican", "Senate", "KS", "Roger Marshall", "M001198", "www.marshall.senate.gov", "marshall", "https://www.marshall.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Senator Marshall Joins RFD-TV\u2019s Market Day Report\n\nWashington \u2013 U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas), joined RFD-TV\u2019s Market Day Report with Suzanne Alexander to discuss the Democrats\u2019 blocking of the Farm Bill out of committee, failing to ensure stability for farms and rural communities through year-round E15, internet expansion, farmer mental health, and more across the country because they refused to hold states accountable for SNAP error rates.\n\nClick HERE to download the full video.\n\nOn the Democrats blocking the Farm Bill out of committee:\n\n\u201cYeah, Suzanne. Well, this is horribly disappointing \u2014 the Democrats just voted down the Farm Bill on the Senate Ag Committee. You know, I think the shocking part is they walked away from year-round E15, they walked away from five years of certainty when it comes to crop protection programs. So, we raised the reference prices 10% to 20% in the Working Families Tax Cuts bill, and this would have given folks five years of certainty. It raised the loan limits from USDA, it had more high-speed internet for rural America, and infrastructure, and farmer mental health \u2014 all those things. And they walked away from it because of an error rate issue when it comes to SNAP programs. And you know, happy to dive into that, but that\u2019s really what their only hangup is. This bill is full of bipartisan priorities, but they\u2019re hung up on the fact that we want states to be accountable \u2014 that if they have a high error rate on administering SNAP, then the states would have to pay more, or some fair share, of those SNAP benefits. So it\u2019s just horrible news for the American farmer and rancher.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou got it. So the Working Families Tax Cuts gave all the states a year and a half to get their error rates fixed. Bargaining with the Democrats, we offered them another year \u2014 so really two and a half years to get their error rates down. But they\u2019re wanting another year on top of that. And nowhere in their solutions do they say, \u2018Why can\u2019t we work on states to get their error rates down?\u2019 I\u2019m just afraid if it wasn\u2019t this, it would be something else. But what I\u2019m calling on is all your listeners to reach out to your Democrat senators and ask them why they walked away from year-round E15. Why did they walk away from five years of certainty for crop protection? In this moment of need \u2014 with input costs where they are right now \u2014 why did their Democrat senator walk away from this bill?\u201d\n\nOn accountability for SNAP fraud and how it is holding up year-round E15:\n\n\u201cYou know, absolutely. Matter of fact, you have leaders: you know Senator Klobuchar, Senator Smith, Senator Durbin \u2014 those are all people from states that grow a little bit of corn. So they\u2019ve led the fight for this E15. Look, you know one of my year-long goals here was to get this. You asked me my priorities for the Farm Bill: it\u2019s E15, E15, and E15. And we got it. So they walked away from that \u2014 that means about 500 million bushels of corn that would have been consumed if we would go to year-round E15. But they walked away from it on this SNAP program. And just to back up, you know, you think about a Farm Bill \u2014 we\u2019re spending $100 billion a year on food programs and about $30 billion on farm programs. Look, I don\u2019t want any child to go home hungry. We get free breakfast at school, free lunches, free dinners, we send them home with food, WIC programs, food banks, senior citizen meals \u2014 all these programs on top of the SNAP program. But the SNAP program is the one that has the higher error rates. I hate to use the word fraud \u2014 I think maybe it\u2019s just incompetence in many cases that the states can\u2019t run the program. But again, they\u2019re walking away from this entire Farm Bill over asking for another year on top of the two and a half years we\u2019ve already given them to get their error rates down.\u201d\n\n\u201cWell, I do, I do think so. I think when all the senators go home for this break in August, they\u2019ve got to look the farmers in rural America in the eyes and let the Democrats explain to the farmers back home why they voted against this Farm Bill. Why did they vote against the increased loan funding that people need to keep things going? Their reference prices are up 10 to 20 percent on reference prices. My goodness, that\u2019s going to be the difference between farms folding and farms being able to plant next year\u2019s crops going forward. So our hope is when these senators go home that the barnyard will show up and say, \u2018Hey, what\u2019s going on here? Come back in September and get this thing across the finish line.\u2019\u201d\n\nOn why SNAP fraud is an issue:\n\n\u201cYeah, well, Suzanne, you know for sure we\u2019ve been trying to figure out that for the last year. And we thought by giving them a year extension, that would do the trick, and that\u2019s why I\u2019m concerned \u2014 well, if we solve this problem, are they going to have some other imaginary problem? And this is the politics right now. My friends across the aisle have shut the government down three times; they won\u2019t fund the military now, they\u2019re at least so far unwilling to extend the government funding beyond September 30th. So I\u2019m afraid of all the places, the Ag Committee was the last place for bipartisanship. And I guarantee you the relationships across the aisle are still there \u2014 Amy Klobuchar, the ranking member of that committee for the Democrats \u2014running for governor, by the way, in Minnesota. Maybe the farmers of Minnesota are going to reach out there and say, \u2018Hey, you need to take care of this Farm Bill.\u2019 So we\u2019ve offered a huge compromise by giving an extra year extension \u2014 I don\u2019t think it\u2019s unreasonable for states to have error rates under 6%. And if they don\u2019t, then they\u2019re going to have to pay a little bit more proportion of the food stamps for their programs for their states.\u201d\n\nOn passing the Farm Bill before the end of the year to provide relief for farmers:\n\n\u201cWell, look, this Farm Bill doesn\u2019t solve everything, but it\u2019s certainly a step back in the right direction. You think about the year-round E15: that\u2019s about the equivalent of maybe a fourth or a fifth of all the corn that we export. You know, it\u2019d be like having another trade partner that\u2019s going to increase our exports by, say, 25 percent. So that alone just starts that whole ball rolling as well. There\u2019s stuff in here for fertilizers by helping have more domestic fertilizers, so we\u2019re not dependent upon foreign nations as well. The loan limits \u2014 especially for young starting farmers \u2014 there\u2019s increased limits for those. We raise the amount of CRP \u2014 the amount of conservation money in this goes up, I think, about 30% for the different conservation programs, whether it\u2019s EQIP or the other ones as well. So there\u2019s so much good in here; I\u2019ve never been prouder of the underlying bill. So, you know, I\u2019m going to go home and lick my wounds, but we\u2019ll get back up tomorrow and keep at it, just like my farmers are going to wake up tomorrow morning and they\u2019re going to keep at it as well.\u201d\n\n\u201cWell, it\u2019s always been crop insurance, right? That\u2019s always been first, second, and third to a Farm Bill, and we added $65 billion to the crop insurance in the Working Families Tax Cuts bill. But then beyond that, it\u2019s the Title I funding, the ARC and the PLC programs. So we raise the reference prices \u2014 and they\u2019re going to be there for this fall \u2014 but the question is long-term what that\u2019s going to take care of. But beyond the Farm Bill, I think really, Suzanne, what people are talking to me back home \u2014 and you said this a second ago \u2014 it\u2019s input costs, it\u2019s fertilizers, it\u2019s pesticides, it\u2019s seeds, those types of things. Diesel \u2014 I mean, I can\u2019t run away from diesel. And I\u2019ll take responsibility from the standpoint that certainly the Strait of Hormuz is impacting this \u2014 and this is why no one wants this war to be over sooner than President Trump and myself do. We understand that the Strait being \u2014 it\u2019s not totally closed, but it\u2019s impacting the price of diesel as well as fertilizer. On the other hand, look, we don\u2019t want Iran to have nuclear weapons either. So I feel like we\u2019re very close to getting that resolved. So we took care of the crop insurance, we took care of the reference prices, now we got to work on those other input costs.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-08-07T06:11:19Z", "2026-08-07T06:12:42Z"]], "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.marshall.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senator-marshall-democrats-are-blocking-the-farm-bill/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8414799813181162, "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"}