Missouri’s farmers and ranchers don’t ask for much, just a level playing field, certainty to plan for the future, and a government that gets out of the way. As Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, delivering that for the agricultural community in Southeast and South Central Missouri has always been my top priority, and with the One, Big, Beautiful Bill, we did exactly that.

Through the One, Big, Beautiful Bill, Republicans delivered roughly 80% of the Farm Bill. That includes $56 billion for Title I farm programs and $6 billion for crop insurance, including the first increase in reference prices in decades. These are both critical safety nets for when disaster strikes that help our farmers weather downturns in the Ag economy.

At the end of President Trump’s first term, the United States had a $5 billion agriculture trade surplus, but just four years later President Biden’s weak trade agenda turned that into a more than $30 billion agriculture trade deficit. We doubled funding for export promotion programs, which combined with new market access created by President Trump’s America First trade policies, will restore a true American agriculture trade surplus. For Missouri’s row crop producers, cattle ranchers, and hog farmers, these can be the difference between a good year and a devastating one.

But the wins go well beyond the farm safety net. As Chairman, I made sure the tax provisions in this bill worked for the men and women who feed this country. The death tax has long been one of the greatest threats to family farms, forcing grieving families to sell land that they’ve had for generations just to pay Uncle Sam. The One, Big, Beautiful Bill made enhanced death tax relief permanent, protecting over two million family farms from seeing their exemption cut in half. We also made the Small Business Deduction permanent, which will directly benefit the 98% of farms in this country. And with permanent 100% immediate expensing, farmers can write off the equipment and tools they need today rather than waiting years to do so.

For our livestock producers, we secured $1.5 billion in livestock biosecurity funding, which will support more large animal veterinarians, USDA laboratories, and vaccine development while providing assistance to farmers hit by animal disease outbreaks. Anyone who remembers what the bird flu crisis did to our poultry operations knows exactly why this matters.

We also protected Missouri farmers’ role in America’s fuel supply. The One, Big, Beautiful Bill ensures our producers are not crowded out of liquid fuel production markets by Chinese cooking oil and other foreign imports, keeping Missouri agriculture competitive and keeping more money in the pockets of the farmers where it belongs.

Our agricultural community plans years into the future — planting decisions, investment decisions, business decisions — and the policy structure today shapes all of it. The One, Big, Beautiful Bill delivered certainty and billions in historic tax cuts for America’s farmers and secured the strongest agricultural safety net in a generation. I was proud to author this transformative piece of legislation and get it across the finish line, and I look forward to continuing to deliver for Missouri’s farmers and ranchers.