Yesterday, an op-ed by House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Angie Craig (MN-02) was published by MS NOW. Read the full op-ed here and an excerpt below.

"This week, congressional Republicans are trying to jam through their third budget proposal of this Congress. Reconciliation 3.0 includes $12 billion in farm aid, $73 billion in defense spending and $10 billion to implement President Donald Trump’s election-rigging voting restrictions. Put another way: In the last week of legislative business before Congress takes a five-week recess, Republicans are scrambling to pass Trump’s remaining policy priorities.

"This has been one of the least productive Congresses in our nation’s history. Between unexpected recesses and abruptly canceled voting days, Republicans have prioritized passing two disastrous budget reconciliation bills. First there was Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which cut $1 trillion from Medicaid and $187 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP — all to initiate the largest transfer of wealth from the middle class to the top 0.1% in American history. Then there was Reconciliation 2.0, which handed $70 billion in additional funding to Immigration and Customs Enforcement after ICE agents shot and killed two American citizens in my home state.

"While Republicans have largely been on vacation, family farmers have been working overtime to make up for the markets they lost due to Trump’s tariffs, the revenue that disappeared when SNAP recipients could no longer afford their products, and the fertilizer and diesel price increases resulting from Trump’s illegal war with Iran. Through all of this, farmers have been understaffed because immigrant workers are afraid to come to work, where they could be picked up by masked ICE agents. Add in the healthcare costs that skyrocketed with the expiration of the Affordable Care Act tax credits, and you’ve got a perfect storm.

[…]

"Not surprisingly, the producers I talk to back home are losing patience. They are tired of the whiplash — of being undercut and then offered relief branded as a donation from the federal government. Farmers don’t want handouts. They want markets. They want healthcare. They want long-term solutions — and so do most Americans."