{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.welch.senate.gov/welch-slams-trumps-trade-war-for-hurting-vermont-farmers-the-market-is-absolutely-destroyed/", "Welch Slams Trump\u2019s Trade War for Hurting Vermont Farmers: \u201cThe market is absolutely destroyed.\u201d", "2025-10-30", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "VT", "Peter Welch", "W000800", "www.welch.senate.gov", "welch", "https://www.welch.senate.gov/category/press-release/page/", "scraper", "Sen. Welch: \u201cMuch of what the farm community is facing is a result of policies that have been allowed to take place by this Congress. And we all revere the hard work of our farmers, but we\u2019ve got to do some work of our own and address these policies\u2026The market is absolutely destroyed, and that is directly a result of the tariffs. This is killing these guys, and we\u2019ve got to acknowledge that and get their markets back.\n\n\u201cThere is discussion right now about taking some of that tariff money and sending it to farmers. And God knows, I support getting some aid to farmers. But let me ask you this question: Do the soybean and corn farmers in Iowa\u2014would they prefer to work hard and sell their product to a market, or get a government handout?\u201d\n\nMr. Coppess: \u201cThank you for the question. We don\u2019t want to live by the government\u2019s hand. We\u2019re fine being the tip of the sword if we can correct the greater problems and have a better long-term future.\u201d\n\nSen. Welch: \u201cBut the point here is, you want to be self-reliant, you want to sell, you want to produce, you want to work hard, you don\u2019t want a government handout\u2014right?\u201d\n\nMr. Coppess: \u201cWe would like to have fair trade.\u201d\n\nSen. Welch: \u201cI am totally with you.\u201d\n\nSen. Welch: \u201cYou know, we\u2019ve got the phosphate, as you mentioned, that is everywhere\u201414% increase in price in Vermont for our farmers. They have no control over that\u2014we mostly import it from Canada. Is that an input cost that is also going up in Iowa?\u201d\n\nMr. Coppess: \u201cIt is. On our farm, we minimize the use of phosphate down to an absolute necessity where we have to have it. It is simply a negative return.\u201d\n\nSen. Welch: \u201c\u2026The tariffs are really hurting us in Vermont, my dairy farmers. And this drought, which they don\u2019t complain about, is just something they\u2019ve got to deal with\u2026They cannot control the weather. They cannot control a lot of things. But we can control some policies that will make it possible for another five generations to keep going.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"]], "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.welch.senate.gov/welch-slams-trumps-trade-war-for-hurting-vermont-farmers-the-market-is-absolutely-destroyed/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8376110345125198, "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"}