Senator Josh Hawley stops in Springfield as he pushes for new farm bill

Yahoo

23-04-2025

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Missouri Senator Josh Hawley met with members of the Missouri Farm Bureau at Convoy of Hope today as he pushes for a new farm bill.
'We have a lot of work to do. A long way to go,' Hawley said about a new farm bill. 'We need a new farm bill. We need it ASAP. We've got to protect our farmers and ranchers.'
So what is the farm bill?
'The farm bill is really a food security bill, part of which is used to help farmers and ranchers provide risk management tools, as well as help implement conservation practices that benefit all of society,' Missouri Farm Bureau President Garrett Hawkins said.
'A huge portion of the farm bill relates to food security,' Hawkins said. 'Many food programs that our neighbors depend on are reauthorized or renewed every time a farm bill is passed.'
Hawley's push includes two major factors — the fact that the bill itself is technically expired, and he wants less regulation as a part of it.
'The farm bill technically expired years ago. We've just been doing one year patches. It has got to be a priority,' Hawley said.
'We need to do a number of things,' Hawley said. 'We need to give farmers the ability and the ranchers, the ability to farm and ranch on their own ground without the EPA coming in and telling them how to use the rainwater in their ditches for heaven's sakes, and trying to regulate that as if it's a waterway of the United States,' Hawley said. 'We need to roll back the environmental regulations, the Green New Deal regulations that are stifling and killing family farms. We need to break up monopoly meatpackers and other monopolies in the ag space that are preventing our farmers in our ranchers from getting a fair price on their goods and commodities. We need new trade agreements that are fair trade agreements that open up markets all across the world for our farmers and ranchers.'
Fair trade has been a large talking point as President Trump has installed, and then paused, tariffs on foreign countries.
While tariffs are meant to incentivize American production, some companies may continue to import goods, and many Americans are worried retaliatory tariffs from other countries could raise the prices of goods in the US.
Farmers are no exception.
'Farmers are price takers, not price makers,' Hawkins said. 'We have business plans that we've had in place, even starting from last August and September, when row crop farmers make their planting decisions for this year, plans are underway. So, yes, while trade policy may be volatile right now, what your listeners need to keep in mind as farmers are executing their business plans, just as we always would, what's important to keep in mind, though, is the pocketbooks of farmers may hurt depending on this market volatility, and that's why making sure that Congress steps up and the USDA is ready to help provide this stopgap solution potentially while this president works to make sure that the level playing field actually happens in the global marketplace.'
Ozarks First asked Senator Hawley, with Republicans controlling the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate, how a bill hasn't already been passed.
'Well, remember, Republicans just came into control about three months ago now, not quite,' Hawley said. 'At this point, the work has begun, and on the President's big budget bill, his 'big beautiful bill' as he calls it, his massive tax cut bill for working people that has begun, but my point is the farm bill needs to be just as much of a priority. We need to get that done. We need to get it done this calendar year. There's time to work, but we've got to get on it right now.'
Hawley and Hawkins agree agriculture is a vital part of the Ozarks, and say the best way to help out, is a new farm bill.
'Farming is our most important industry in the state of Missouri. I would argue it's our most important industry nationwide,' Hawley said. 'You cannot be a great nation if you do not produce your own food.'
'I think what we have to keep in mind is right now we have a bloated government and questions are being asked in terms of trying to 'right size' programs. We are feeling pains all across government right now, which is why we need to write a new farm bill, which is why members of Congress need to step up, ask the hard questions, and prioritize programs that truly benefit the most vulnerable in America, as well as benefit those who work hard to produce food, fiber and fuel for the rest of the country and many people around the world. That is the urgency behind getting a new farm bill done,' Hawkins said.
Hawkins, a farmer in St. Clair County, is hopeful future trade deals lessen restrictions on what farmers can export overseas.
'We take in twice as much as what they will take from us. They don't take our beef or our poultry. Why? Because of technical barriers that keep us out,' Hawkins said. 'It could be anything from herbicides used or crop protection tools, for instance. It could be biotechnology, it could be hormones. It could be how we wash our poultry and processing plants.'
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