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Floor Speech

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Mr. BOOZMAN. Madam President, our farmers are hurting. Increased input costs, high interest rates, and depressed commodity prices have created dark conditions in rural America. Farmers, lenders, and community leaders in all regions of the country are saying the same thing: Farmers desperately need help.

When you look at the numbers, it is clear, the pain our farm families are living through. As of the end of November, row crop farmers nationwide are projected to lose more than $29 billion, corn growers will lose more than $11 billion, soybean producers will lose $5.7 billion, and wheat farmers will lose more than $5 billion. The numbers aren't better for other commodities. Cotton, sorghum, rice, and peanut producers are ending 2024 with projected average losses of over $200 per acre.

The reality behind these losses is even more worrisome. For some producers, this is the second or third consecutive year of negative cashflow. This means many farm families are ending 2024 in the red: unable to pay off this year's operating loan, unable to get the loan to farm in 2025, and facing the reality of being the generation to have lost the family farm due to extreme market conditions beyond their control. One Arkansas farmer recently shared that he had the best crop yield of his career, but he is still underwater because commodity prices are well below the cost of production. Even for producers who haven't seen severe losses in 2024, the concern for 2025 continues to escalate as margins are forecasted to remain poor.

In the last few months, there has been a significant shift in the spirit of our farmers. After years of unprecedented challenges, they are discouraged and pleading for stronger tools to help survive these conditions.

Farm groups are sounding the alarm. The American Farm Bureau says there are clear economic warning signs of need in rural America. Agricultural Council of Arkansas President Nathan Reed described the conditions that Natural State farmers are facing as ``virtually impossible to net anything but a significant loss regardless of crop, yield or safety net coverage.''

The severity of these losses has left many producers questioning if they have a future in farming. Established farmers are hesitant to risk what little equity remains, while young and beginning farmers don't have the capital necessary to survive these conditions.

The Southwest Council of Agribusiness expressed concerns about the full-time farm and ranch families unable to continue and the consequences that would result with these farms being ``lost or forced into consolidation.''

The USDA has acknowledged the hardships some producers are experiencing as a result of natural disasters, but it is not enough. Federal assistance must support agriculture producers facing market losses, and it needs to happen quickly. Producers need an efficient mechanism to provide 2024 economic assistance and certainty for 2025 through an improved farm safety net.

It is an understanding that is gaining support on both sides of the Capitol. In an Appropriations Committee hearing last month, Senator Hyde-Smith called for the robust and swift delivery of emergency assistance to agriculture producers because of adverse market conditions. I appreciate the leadership of House Agriculture Committee Chairman GT Thompson and Congressman Trent Kelly for recognizing the urgent need and proposing a solution.

Congress should provide significant economic assistance to producers before the end of the year. We need to provide producers with the certainty and the predictability to be able to go to the bank and have confidence that help is on the way so that they can continue farming.

In recent meetings with members of the Texas Farm Bureau, the Midwest Council on Agriculture, USA Rice, and the Arkansas Farm Bureau, who have been growing food and fiber for generations, they are worried about what the banker will say when they go to get credit for the 2025 crop year and what that means to their future in the industry. If Congress does not act appropriately, I worry many of these producers may not be around next year.

Agriculture is an important part of our country's heritage and our economy. Our producers grow an abundant and affordable supply of food and fiber. They must have the tools they need to manage this extremely difficult market. We must help our farmers recover from the sizable losses they realized in 2024 and give them certainty for 2025. This assistance is crucial to the viability of agriculture in the United States.

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