With Arkansans looking on, President Donald Trump signed the 2018 farm bill into law during a ceremony Thursday at the White House.
The new law, which spells out the nation's agriculture and nutrition policies, calls for more than $400 billion in spending over the next five years; roughly $867 billion over the next decade.
Arkansas Farm Bureau President Randy Veach and the group's director of government affairs, Matt King, witnessed the ceremony along with Terry Dabbs, a farmer from Stuttgart.
Three Arkansas Republicans who helped craft the bill also attended: U.S. Sen. John Boozman of Rogers and U.S. Reps. Bruce Westerman of Hot Springs and Rick Crawford of Jonesboro.
Trump said the new law is "a really tremendous victory for the American farmer, ranchers, agriculture -- incredible people."
"We've been working long and hard on this one. We were hearing it might not be able to pass this year, but ... we passed it," he said.
Friday's event capped more than a year of work on Capitol Hill.
"It was very encouraging and very uplifting," Veach said. "It's a great day for our nation. It's a great day for our farmers and ranchers. And we're thrilled that we've got this farm bill and that stability that we need."
In a written statement, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue described the latest farm bill as "evolutionary, rather than revolutionary."
The measure includes price supports and disaster assistance for farmers, trade promotion funds, conservation funding and loan programs.
In addition to providing aid for American farmers, it also reauthorizes the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides food aid to roughly 40 million poor people nationwide.
Farm bills are typically renewed every five years or so. The last one had expired on Sept. 30.
"I think it was important to get this five year bill in place to give farmers some certainty. Also it's got some really nice stuff in there for rural America," Westerman said.
The measure included funding for rural broadband and establishes a "feral swine eradication and control pilot program," Westerman said. It also makes some improvements to federal forest policy, he added.
Boozman said the legislation gives a necessary boost to agriculture.
"Compared back to the last farm bill we passed, income has declined 50 percent, foreclosures are up 38 percent. The commodity prices, what they can sell their products for, [are] very, very low right now. Because of those things it's been very very difficult for the American farmer," he said.
The farm bill also continues anti-hunger programs, Boozman noted.
"There are a number of people in our country, many of them working poor, people that have jobs but perhaps are making minimum wage or a little bit above that ... and they simply can't make ends meet," he said.
For them, "it's a very important lifeline," he said.
In a written statement, Arkansas Rice Federation Chairman Jeff Rutledge thanked Boozman, Westerman, Crawford, U.S. Rep. French Hill of Little Rock and U.S. Rep. Steve Womack of Rogers for supporting the farm bill.
U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Dardanelle, was the only member of the delegation to vote against the bill.
"We are extremely pleased to see final passage of a farm bill that provides some certainty in such a variable agricultural climate. The advocacy of our congressional delegates on behalf of Arkansas producers cannot be overstated and our family farms will continue to benefit from their leadership for years to come," Rutledge added.
Business on 12/21/2018