This year’s version of the Farm Bill received overwhelming bipartisan support in the United States Senate and House this week and now awaits the signature of President Donald J. Trump to become law.
The Farm Bill passed the Senate first, where it was approved 87 to 13 on Tuesday, Dec. 11, and on Wednesday, Dec. 12, it was followed by a 386 to 47 vote in the House.
Of Arkansas’ delegation, only Sen. Tom Cotton was a no vote, while Sen. John Boozman and Reps. Rick Crawford, French Hill, Steve Womack and Bruce Westerman were all yes votes.
In the Senate, Cotton, whose family has a farm in Yell County, joined with seven other Republicans to vote against the bill, which will authorize more than $867 billion in spending to assist agriculture across the country.
Agriculture is the state’s largest industry with more than 50,000 farm families, and it generates more than $16 billion in revenue with one in six Arkansans working in farming or ranching.
“We are pleased that Congress has recognized how important a new Farm Bill is to the hard-working farmers and ranchers of this country,” says Arkansas Farm Bureau president Randy Veach. “We are grateful they have come together to pass this critical legislation before the new year.”
Steve Eddington, a spokesman for Arkansas Farm Bureau, adds, “Certainly, we are thankful to the members of the Arkansas delegation who voted for the Farm Bill.”
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Crawford, who represents the Arkansas Delta in the First Congressional district, notes the vote was a “record high” and “given the importance of agriculture to Arkansas’ economy, I’m pleased to see the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill.”
Crawford is a member of the House Committee on Agriculture and served as a Conferee for the bill.
The bill will cover most U.S. Department of Agriculture programs and that includes commodities, rural development loans and international food aid, among other efforts. It also covers the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, that’s more commonly known as food stamps.
Boozman is a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee and also served as a Farm Bill conferee.
“Considering how vital agriculture is to Arkansas’s economy, ensuring that we pass a final reauthorization of the farm bill before adjournment has been a top priority of mine,” he says. “The last thing [farmers and ranchers] need is continued uncertainty that would only intensify if we failed to see this through the finish line. That is why we worked hard, in a bipartisan manner, to reach consensus.”
Speaking from the floor, Westerman, who serves the state’s Fourth District and was also a Farm Bill conferee, said, “It does not contain everything I would like to see in a Farm Bill but it does move the ball forward. It is progress that our farmers need right now.”
The reaction from various agriculture trade groups was uniformly positive.
“We thank Senator Boozman and Congressmen Rick Crawford and Bruce Westerman for their efforts as Farm Bill conferees, and we are very pleased to see this measure nearing completion,” says Andrew Grobmyer, who is Executive Vice President of the Agricultural Council of Arkansas. “We cannot stress enough the importance of the Farm Bill and the need for it among Arkansas farmers. Right now, there is nothing in place as the previous law has expired, and the agriculture economy, especially the row crop segment, is struggling mightily.”
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