Fort Ontario Holocaust Refugee Shelter National Historical Park Establishment Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, today's farmers across the country are facing significant financial losses for most commodities planted during the 2024 crop-year. It is a dire situation. Basically, they are in trouble.

I have been saying this for a while now: For the sake of American food security, national security, and rural prosperity, Congress must pass economic assistance for our farmers before the end of this year.

That is why I am asking Congress to pass a stand-alone economic assistance package for our farmers, no strings attached.

This isn't for the lobbyists, special interests, or liberal pet projects; it would go directly to the people who feed, clothe, and fuel the United States of America and the world.

It is for the American farmers who are desperate. They are in desperate need of help to survive. This economic assistance certainly won't help farmers make a profit. They have no chance. It won't even help them break even.

Right now, many farmers won't be able to secure financing and renew their operating loans to keep their farms running for another year. Again, they are in trouble. This funding would only help farmers cover part of the 2023 and 2024 losses for American producers.

For crops grown in my State of Alabama specifically, the expected losses this year are over $200 per acre. Cotton producers are in worse shape, with losses of approximately $373 per acre. Peanut farmers' losses are next, at almost $198 per acre. Other crops, such as corn, soybean, and rice are also facing devastating financial losses.

These losses are occurring after farmers have produced bumper crops, which have yielded some of the best crops producers have seen in many, many years.

This indicates that a major economic disaster is looming for our producers and our country. If this dire situation continues, the American agricultural industry will face permanent--permanent--damage. American farming as we know it could cease--I repeat, cease--to exist.

Regardless of the region, State, crop, or weather pattern, there is one thing every farmer is subject to; that is, the law of economics. And right now, it is economic disaster for our farmers across this country and all States.

The math is simple. With production costs and interest rates at an alltime high, farmers' expenses are exceeding their profits. Under President Biden's leadership, cost for feed is up 22 percent; fertilizer, up 34 percent; fuel, up 30 percent. On top of that, labor is up 40 percent, and interest is up 54 percent on crop loans--54 percent. You can't make these numbers up.

Input costs are skyrocketing while commodity prices have plummeted-- absolutely plummeted--and are expected to continue falling.

According to the 2022 USDA agriculture census, our Nation has lost over 25,000 producers in just the last few years.

According to the USDA net farm income, this year is projected to decline 4.1 percent from 2023. This follows a shocking--listen to this--a shocking 22.6-percent decline from 2022 levels. These figures represent over $40 billion in lost revenue for America's hard-working producers.

No business--not one business--in this country can survive like this. Our farmers and our farms are no different. This is the largest 2-year decline in farm income in the history of this country--the history of the country.

In Alabama alone, we have lost nearly 2,000 producers and over 3,200 farms in just the last few years. This will cause farms to get bigger, not smaller.

The economies of scale will continue to push out small- and medium- sized growers, resulting in further consolidation of the agriculture industry. The little guys, in other words, they can't compete. We cannot allow these terrible trends to continue.

American farmers are rapidly approaching a steep financial cliff. Many will go off the ledge, never to recover unless Congress throws them a lifeline and pulls them back to safety.

This supplemental funding needs to happen in addition to a long extension of the farm bill. It has to be extended.

I continue to stand with Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Boozman in emphasizing the need to pass a strong farm bill with an adequate farm safety net in the upcoming Congress.

However, the truth is that even if we did pass a new farm bill--which would be improved, hopefully--containing increased reference prices for title I commodities, assistance would not reach farmers until October 2026. It will be a little too late for the farmers this year, for thousands of them.

Most farmers who wish to plant crops in 2025 need renewed access to credit before the end of this month. With many balancing checkbooks in the red--some for the second, third, and fourth year in a row--farmers will have a difficult time securing financing without improved certainty within the agriculture sector.

So while a 1-year farm bill extension is important, it does not provide the needed certainty for bankers and creditors to extend farm loans for this coming planting season. By failing to extend the adequate financial lifeline to farmers, now our farmers will--and I repeat--will not survive until the fall of 2026. It will be over.

It is a sad reality. At the end of the day, it is not their fault. They work 365 days a year, 7 days a week, and put their hard-earned money as well as borrowed money into their farms.

The supplemental assistance I am advocating for today will only serve as a bandaid to slow the bleeding until they get a farm loan and plant next season's crop.

I am hearing from producers all over Alabama and across the country about the dire state of the farm economy. Producers can't pay employees or their bills for seed, chemicals, and fertilizers. They can't pay it. I have never seen it this bad, never.

Lawsuits have already started--suing farmers for something that they don't have. Farmers have bumper crops of cotton, peanuts, corn, and beans. Yet they are still on the brink of bankruptcy. Something is wrong.

This isn't about commodity versus commodity or region versus region; it is about the survival of the American farmer and the communities that rely on them. It is about saving the hard-working men and women who play a critical role in feeding and clothing and fueling not only the United States but, folks, the entire world.

Congress cannot defy the laws of economics, but it can pass a stand- alone economic assistance package for our farmers to help them survive another year. This is perfectly within our power. There will be no funny business for this economic assistance, just a straight up-and- down vote to see who stands with our farmers, the food for this country, and the world.

Democrats always try to hold emergency funding for farmers hostage, like we have this year, and they want projects to go along with the funding, basically holding us hostage, holding these farmers who have worked hard and put their own sweat and blood into this crop that they have had.

Farmers from every corner of the country need us now, more than ever. There is not going to be another chance for a high percentage of this farming group that are farming this year--it is not going to happen-- which is why I am calling on the House and the Senate to put politics aside. I am begging: Put politics aside.

I wish I could have farmers standing up here today. They would be telling you the same thing. They don't like handouts. They like to work for the money that they make; they always have. That is why they are special. But they need a no-strings-attached economic plan.

I know President Trump will do everything he can in his power to assist American farmers when he is sworn into office. Our next Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, will deliver for our farmers as soon as she is sworn in. But until then, I ask the Senate to stand up and stand with an economic assistance package to throw our farmers a lifeline. They deserve it. They need it. And it is not just for them; it is for the entire country.

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