Chuck Grassley: “the Chaplain, in his opening prayer, mentioned something about the shutting down of the government. It would be a good…”

“the Chaplain, in his opening prayer, mentioned something about the shutting down of the government. It would be a good opportunity for me to follow on that and say that it costs money to shut down the government and costs money to open up the government. The government is supposed to protect and serve the American people. You can't do that if you are shut down. I hope we can avoid it. Agricultural Economy Mr. President, I come to the floor to talk about the agricultural economy. There are many big issues facing our Nation's farmers this season. There is stress in the grain-producing areas of the United States. That is true of my State of Iowa. Stress comes from the fact that farmers are losing $1.10 a bushel on corn and soybeans about $2 a bushel. Stress comes not only from low prices for their products but high input costs, uncertainty in the international market, particularly the issue of tariffs. Then, also, we have the issue of high interest rates, market consolidation, and I suppose you can go on. Today, I would like to focus on high input costs that farmers will be paying this season. The average production costs for farmers are down only 3 percent since their very high peak in 2022. Meanwhile, corn prices are down 50 percent in the same period. To put it plainly, many farmers will be lucky if they break even this fall.”