While many have been concerned about how inflation and supply chain issues are affecting Christmas shoppers this holiday season, a group of Republican senators are concerned about how soaring inflation is hurting another group of people: Farmers.
A letter, signed by 13 Republican senators last week, asked the chairs of several federal agencies to monitor “how inflation and inflationary-related pressures are affecting farmers and ranchers and, in turn, the community financial institutions that serve them.”
Led by Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas, ranking member on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, the senators blamed the inflation that is affecting farmers on the federal government’s large spending increases over the past year and a half.
“[T]hese higher prices are not just increasing grocery bills and home heating costs, but they are also raising costs on businesses, including on our nation’s farmers and ranchers,” the letter read.
The senators pointed out how higher prices are specifically hurting farmers: “Specific to agriculture, inflation is hiking the cost of doing business on everything from fertilizer to fuel to machinery, among a number of other things needed to keep farm and ranch operations running. To name just a few examples, fertilizer prices have increased by 265 percent since May 2020, and farm diesel prices and used farm machinery prices are up year-over-year by over 50 percent and 34 percent respectively. And these rising input costs are one of the factors contributing to declining optimism among farmers, according to a recent study by Purdue University.”
The letter was sent the same day the Federal Reserve released a plan to address inflation. As The Daily Wire reported last week, the Federal Reserve announced it will more rapidly pursue a conclusion to the quantitative easing program.
“In light of inflation developments and the further improvement in the labor market, the Committee decided to reduce the monthly pace of its net asset purchases by $20 billion for Treasury securities and $10 billion for agency mortgage-backed securities,” the Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement. “Beginning in January, the Committee will increase its holdings of Treasury securities by at least $40 billion per month and of agency mortgage‑backed securities by at least $20 billion per month.”
The GOP-written letter was sent to Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, among other department chairs. Last week, Powell addressed his concern with inflation. “We understand that high inflation imposes significant burdens, especially on those less able to meet the higher costs of essentials like food, housing, and transportation,” he said in testimony to Congress. “We are committed to our price-stability goal. We will use our tools both to support the economy and a strong labor market and to prevent higher inflation from becoming entrenched.”
Republican senators requested that the federal government look out for farmers in the midst of high inflation by not placing more regulations on financial institutions that serve farmers: “[A]s producers potentially seek greater amounts of credit, we urge you to not increase regulatory or examination burdens upon community financial institutions, which could interfere with their ability to extend credit to agriculture customers. We believe that community financial institutions have the necessary capital to help their farm and ranch borrowers keep up with rising input costs as profit margins tighten, while maintaining the proper safety and soundness considerations.”
Sens. John Barrasso (R-WY), Mike Braun (R-IN), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), James Inhofe (R-OK), John Kennedy (R-LA), James Lankford (R-OK), Jim Risch (R-ID), Tim Scott (R-SC), John Thune (R-SD), and Thom Tillis (R-NC) also signed onto the letter.