Amidst the backdrop of a federal government shutdown, U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Jonesboro, is not slowing down in his effort to help Arkansas farmers.
The First District Congressman said in a weekend interview that he has still been holding meetings with Trump administration officials to address the farming crisis.
“There was a meeting that we had with OMB [Office of Management and Budget] director Russ Vought this morning, and he specifically mentioned provisions like crop insurance. That would continue,” said Crawford, who sits on the House Agriculture Committee. “Number two, I think it’s important to note about two months ago, I reached out to the White House and suggested that we take some of this tariff-derived revenue and put it into the form of relief for farmers who are suffering through some of the worst times we’ve seen since the 1980’s. I personally put that on the radar screen to the White House back in August.”
“The President has decided to take some of that tariff revenue and move that over to farm relief. I think he got the message and recognized that I was telling the truth about how bad things are in rural America and Arkansas is ‘Exhibit A.’ I’m encouraged by his recognition and understanding that we need the help. We need it immediately,” he added.
“The President has decided to take some of that tariff revenue and move that over to farm relief. I think he got the message and recognized that I was telling the truth about how bad things are in rural America and Arkansas is ‘Exhibit A.’ I’m encouraged by his recognition and understanding that we need the help. We need it immediately,” he added.
Crawford also said another round of funding from the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program [ECAP] is about to be released to complete the 2024 crop year support. ECAP is a program authorized by the American Relief Act that provides direct payments to agricultural producers for losses incurred due to increased input costs and falling commodity prices for the 2024 crop year.
“That’s good news,” said Crawford, who emphasized that it needs to happen in the next two months. “But if we don’t get it before December, we’re looking at I think a spade of foreclosures in the month of January that’s going to be very, very devastating to rural economies in Arkansas and across the country.”
While these short-term measures will hopefully occur this year, Crawford is optimistic about longer-term efforts. He cited his vote on the President’s One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) that will make adjustments in 2026 to price loss coverage (PLC) and reference prices that are normally reserved for the Farm Bill.
“Even though those reference prices have been updated, we still have that structural flaw in the PLC that basically pays 12 to 14 months in arrears. I’m trying to fix that, and maybe that’s something we can fix when we actually do the Farm Bill,” he said. “The Farm Bill will be a skinny version of the Farm Bill because the heavy lifting was done in OBBB. We’ve got some good policy wins, but we need to finish that off and we need to provide some immediate relief.”
Ongoing trade and tariff issues have roiled agricultural markets and producer income. China has shifted a huge portion of its soybean purchases from the U.S. to Brazil. Higher input costs, low commodity prices, and weather-related incidents combined with the lack of an overall Farm Bill and trade wars have cumulatively waylaid farmers in Arkansas and across the nation, especially row crop farmers like those in Lonoke County.
Crawford thinks the immediate relief that farmers need from tariff-derived revenue and ECAP doesn’t need any further Congressional action. He believes the President can unilaterally take action to provide farmer relief through those mechanisms.
“I think the President has the authority to do that,” said Crawford.
He also thinks there are opportunities to sell soybeans to other countries, who may in turn sell to China.
“We’ve had some other countries that did buy soybeans from us because they knew China needed them,” he said. “It was an opportunity for us to expand our distribution network, which I think we should be doing all the time. We don’t have to sell soybeans directly to China because they’ll still go to China. What we need to do is expand our distribution network, and we do that through more robust trade relationships with countries around the world.”
“I’m encouraged that this administration sees it the same way, and they’re trying to get that done,” added Crawford.