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Floor Speech

Date: Nov. 14, 2019
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Trade Agriculture and Food Environment

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, a 5-year decline in farm income, retaliatory tariffs on U.S. ag commodities, disrupted renewable biofuel policies, devastating natural disasters, and now shortages of LP gas needed to dry harvested grain add to the growing burdens weighing heavily on the minds of Iowans and American farmers.

Mounting pressure to pay the bills, to get the crops out, and to make ends meet can be overwhelming. We have lately expressed lots of worries and pressures that come from the increase in farm bankruptcies and the increase in rural and farm suicides.

There are many uncertainties in farming that are beyond human control, but there are other areas where Congress can help. As a farmer and as a Senator representing the No. 1 agricultural State, I am fighting to build mental health resources--as an example, there is the Grassley-Tester bill to help preempt suicides--to uphold the RFS by fighting with the EPA, and to pass the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

These are issues that are tops on the minds of Iowans and not just the farmers.

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