In the News

U.S. Rep. Jodey Arrington said he believes the Trump administration and the majority of Congress ‘get’ agriculture. So much so that he’s confident the 2018 Farm Bill will be done on time and looked at favorably. Arrington, a member of the House Agriculture Committee, was back in Lubbock on Wednesday after spending Tuesday in San Angelo for a farm bill listening session with Chairman Mike Conaway and five other committee members. It was part of a series of listening sessions the committee is hosting across the country. Arrington said it was great seeing young and energetic farmers engaged — and for the committee member to hear them. “We know what has to be done,” said Arrington. “We’ve got to make sure the safety net works, which means we’re gonna have to adjust the reference price because it hasn’t worked — mainly because the last farm bill was created when prices were at an all time high, now they’re at an all time low. Crop insurance seems to have worked, so minor tweaks there, but keep that in place.” But Arrington said there’s things that need to get done before the 2018 Farm Bill. Arrington worked with Chairman Conaway to collect 109 signatures from the House on a letter sent to President Donald Trump urging him to re-launch the Cotton Ginning Cost Sharing Program. “The cost sharing program, administered by the Department of Agriculture, is desperately needed to provide policy stability in the absence of a comprehensive policy for cotton farmers in the existing farm bill to effectively respond to sustained and deep economic losses due to price and revenue declines,” the letter said. “This cost share program was operated by the previous Administration for the 2015 crop year and is an effective and efficient means of providing economic relief to America’s’s cotton farming families.” The letter then urges the President to take action for the USDA to administer this program again. The letter to the President was attached with a personal letter from Arrington requesting a meeting to discuss the struggles in the cotton industry. Or as the letter says, the “struggling Made in America industry.” Many of the audience members at the San Angelo listening session spoke on the urgency to get cotton back under the Title 1 Program in the farm bill. Arrington said this will get done in 2018, but he’d like to see it get done sooner. This is one of the issues he’d like to speak to the President about, because unfortunately, Arrington believes it’s not getting support from the President Trump’s budget director, Mick Mulvaney. “Everyone on the Ag Committee knows it was a mistake to pull cotton out (as a covered commodity), and we’re going to put it back in,” he said. “But in the meantime we’re losing producers... We’re pushing at every angle, and I know (Secretary of Agriculture) Sonny Perdue gets it. In my opinion, I think you have a budget director who is antagonistic to farm policy.” Arrington said Mulvaney is a good man and is a good fit for the job. Arrington described him as a budget hawk, but said he’s not an advocate for agriculture policy. “That’s why we have to get to Vice President (Mike) Pence, who comes from an ag state, and the President who wants to save not only a great American industry like the cotton industry, but he wants to do right by rural America,” Arrington said. “That’s the big plan.” A-J Media spoke with Arrington on Thursday about other issues as well, such as the House’s proposed budget, healthcare and pressure on Congress’ to pass major legislation. See more from Arrington’s interview in Sunday’s Avalanche-Journal.