FARGO, N.D. – Senator John Hoeven today held a roundtable with Richard Fordyce, the Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and agriculture producers and commodity groups on efforts to help farmers overcome the current challenges facing the farm economy. To this end, Hoeven invited Fordyce to the state to hear firsthand from producers and gather input as:
- USDA implements the enhancements to the farm safety net that Hoeven passed as part of the Working Families Tax Cuts Act.
- Hoeven works to:
- Secure additional agriculture assistance.
- Restore buy-up coverage for prevent plant acres.
- Hoeven has been working with his colleagues on the Senate Agriculture Committee and USDA to reinstate this option for producers, which provides an additional layer of certainty when disasters prevent farmers from planting their fields.
- Address predatory trade practices impacting sugar producers. To this end, Hoeven:
- Led 111 of his Congressional colleagues in supporting U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in utilizing a Section 301 investigation to protect sugar producers from predatory trade practices.
- Has been working with USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to address the importation of sugared molasses, which is being used to circumvent U.S. tariffs on sugar imports.
“Our farmers are facing a wide range of difficulties that undermine their ability to keep their operations afloat. We appreciate Under Secretary Fordyce for agreeing to visit the state, talk with our producers and outline how we’re working to give them the support and tools they need to get through this tough stretch,” said Hoeven. “The enhancements we made to the farm safety net will make a real difference, but we need additional ag assistance in the short-term. We’re working to do just that both to address market challenges and natural disasters. At the same time, the U.S. sugar market has been inundated with imports, including those that are using sugared molasses to circumvent tariffs. We’re working with the U.S. Trade Representative, USDA and CBP to ensure a fair domestic market for our producers and protect against predatory trade practices by other nations.”
Securing Additional Ag Assistance
Hoeven and Fordyce discussed the enhancements to crop insurance and the increased reference prices for Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC). These improvements are set to come fully online in October and will help producers better weather difficult conditions over the long-term. In the short-term, Hoeven is working to provide additional farm assistance, building upon the $12 billion Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) program. The senator is working with Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman (R-AR) to:
- Expand FBA to cover a greater share of producer losses.
- Include acres that were prevented from being planted as eligible under FBA.
- Expand support for specialty crops and sugar producers.
- Provide weather assistance for losses in 2025 and 2026.
- Increase farm ownership and operating loan limits.
