(WASHINGTON D.C.) — Senator John Hoeven (R-ND) covered a broad slate of agriculture policy priorities during a one-on-one Capitol Hill conversation last week walking through the push to onshore fertilizer production to the United States, advances in ag technology, the prospects for a near-term farm aid package, and unfinished business on the farm bill and trade in the Senate.
Senator Hoeven pointed to last week’s USDA announcement from Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins as a key step toward both near and long-term efforts to lower fertilizer costs and expand domestic supply. He said producing more at home is essential, and highlighted Dakota Gasification Company in North Dakota, which converts coal to natural gas and then to urea and anhydrous ammonia, as a model for reducing reliance on overseas suppliers. “We need to do more of that,” he said.
The senator also touted Grand Farm in North Dakota, which has been named the first proving ground for USDA’s National Ag Tech initiative. The goal, he said, is using technology to make farmers and ranchers more profitable by reducing fertilizer and chemical inputs while preserving a family-based system of production. “It’s got to work for our farmers and our ranchers in a way that makes them more profitable. We can’t be working for the technology, it has to work for us,” Hoeven said. He stressed that the program is designed to support family-scale operations rather than push the industry toward the kind of large-scale industrialized model seen in countries like Brazil.
On near-term farm assistance, Senator Hoeven said the Senate is working to expand the Farmer Bridge Assistance program to help producers get through to October, when updated ARC and PLC payments kick in. He pegged the potential package in the range of $17 billion, including funding for specialty crops, with additional dollars likely added for weather-related needs such as wildfire response. He said the goal is to move it as a supplemental in the coming weeks, once Homeland Security funding is resolved.
Looking ahead to the Farm Bill, Senator Hoeven (speaking ahead of the House passage of their version of the Farm Bill) said he hoped the House would send over what remains after last summer’s reconciliation work so the Senate can begin advancing it. His priorities include securing year-round E15 — either in the farm bill or a supplemental — building on the Commodity Credit Corporation baseline included in the One Big Beautiful Bill to support higher ARC and PLC reference prices, keeping conservation programs “farmer friendly,” and updating credit programs, including those aimed at beginning farmers. He also noted his ongoing partnership with Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) on credit program legislation.
Hoeven closed with a focus on trade and value-added agriculture, calling expanded market access critical for producers facing tight margins.
“Yeah you know it’s a tough time for our farmers right now and so we got to help them but ultimately the whole focus here, a lot of these things we talked about, is to get our farmers to the point where they’re responding to the market and that means doing a lot more on the trade piece,” according to Senator Hoeven. “We’re working on, for example, the sugar program under 301, the tier two tariff, that needs to be updated. We need access to markets. I talked to (USTR) Jameson Greer yesterday; he and Secretary Bessent are working hard along obviously with President Trump who will be going to China. We hope to see some enhanced sales opportunities there but we got to keep pushing markets and we can’t leave out value-added agriculture here at home, that is one of the best way to create enhanced value for our farmers and ranchers.”
You can listen to the conversation below or also in Segment Four of the Wednesday, May 6th episode of Agriculture of America (CLICK HERE)
