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Boozman: ag economic relief package being negotiated

The ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee says lawmakers have been working on an economic relief package to help farmers get through the tough farm economy.

“The question is what can we get together to sell to the rest of Congress?”

John Boozman tells Brownfield there are several proposals being considered, including The FARM Act, introduced by Trent Kelly, a U.S. Representative from Mississippi.

The FARM Act would provide emergency assistance to eligible commodities (barley, corn, cotton, sorghum, peanuts, rice, wheat and soybeans) for which the expected revenue for the 2024 crop year is below the projected per-acre cost of production.

“It does provide significant economic relief. We’re looking at the numbers and trying to figure out exactly where we’re at. We’re negotiating these things.”

And when it comes to the cost of the economic relief package, Boozman says “We’ll have to wait and see.”

He says the economic relief package for agriculture is a bipartisan priority when lawmakers return to Washington D.C. in mid-November.