Agriculture

President Biden has abandoned and punished our farmers on every front imaginable. His new WOTUS rule invites federal bureaucrats to saddle Iowa farmers with costly red tape, his electric vehicle mandates threaten the vitality of our biofuels industry, and his economic agenda jeopardizes longstanding provisions in the tax code to strengthen Iowa agriculture.

Over the last two years, poor decision making in Washington has increased costs for our families, farmers, and small businesses. The average mortgage rate nationwide has nearly eclipsed 7% as the Federal Reserve continues its aggressive rate hikes, inflation remains at historic highs, and small business optimism has plummeted to a 10-year low.

Iowa’s pork industry is a vital economic engine for our families, farmers, main street businesses, and rural communities. Our 5,400 pig farms raise roughly 23 million hogs every year, which account for one-third of the nation’s total pork production, generate nearly $41 billion in sales across the entire pork supply chain, and support almost 150,000 Iowa jobs in production, processing, and harvesting. However, a critical, yet often overlooked, component of pork production is trade.

American fuel retailers, corn growers, ethanol producers, and our families face unnecessary uncertainty year after year awaiting the Environmental Protection Agency’s arbitrary, last-minute waivers to allow for the summertime sale of E-15 at gas stations nationwide. This unpredictability raises gas prices for American families, prevents fuel retailers from consistently marketing low-cost, low-carbon E-15, and threatens the livelihoods of corn growers and ethanol producers not only in Iowa, but across the Midwest.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture marked another disappointing development in the Biden administration's lackluster trade agenda. It projected that our agriculture trade deficit—which already shattered records this past fiscal year—will climb to $27.5 billion for Fiscal Year 2024.