John Boozman: “I want to thank my good friend from North Dakota Senator Hoeven for his leadership on this issue. Under normal…”

“I want to thank my good friend from North Dakota Senator Hoeven for his leadership on this issue. Under normal circumstances, we would have been celebrating the passage of a new farm bill by now. Unfortunately, we are not there yet, and our farmers continue to face far from normal circumstances. But we are making progress, and I am committed to meaningfully addressing the needs of farmers, ranchers, and rural communities. Alongside bolstering the title 1 reference prices, maintaining and improving crop insurance is at the top of the list for my farm bill priorities. But more importantly, these are the top priorities of farmers across the country. The first of many farm bill listening sessions I have participated in started with a roundtable in Senator Hoeven's home State of North Dakota. The takeaway from that event has been echoed across the countryside and in meetings throughout Washington: We need more ``farm'' in the farm bill. This next farm bill must update the risk management tools farmers and ranchers need to succeed in order to reflect the nature of the challenges under which they operate today. Here is the reality: Producers are experiencing unprecedented challenges, regulatory uncertainty, and historic volatility in the farm economy, all of which are predicted to even get worse. A producer from Minnesota told me recently that record high input costs, coupled with declining crop prices, would mean that she would have to harvest a record yield just to break even.…”