One of the reddest states in the country is now urging President Donald Trump to take swift action to end the government shutdown by warning him that severe economic calamity will soon hit many of his voters.
The Atlantic's Toluse Orunnipa reported recently that as the shutdown is about to extend into its fourth week, lawmakers in Arkansas passed a resolution saying the state was "in need of strong leadership from President Donald J. Trump" to prevent the looming closure of thousands of farms in the mostly rural state. Republican state representative DeAnn Vaught, a farmer who authored the resolution, compared farmers' plight to "a tsunami coming."
"This is going to affect the state of Arkansas in a very mighty way," Vaught said.
Between the expiration of the Farm Bill, the Trump administration's tariffs resulting in foreign governments buying fewer agricultural products from the United States and the shutdown, farmers are teetering on insolvency. While the U.S. Department of Agriculture typically has fully staffed offices aimed at helping farmers obtain loans, the shutdown has resulted in those offices being closed for the bulk of the last month.
Trump has promised to divert some of the revenue from his tariffs to help farmers, though the details of those plans have yet to be hashed out given the shutdown. According to the Atlantic, approximately one-third of Arkansas farms could be shuttered before next year's harvest absent a multibillion-dollar bailout from the federal government. But each day the shutdown continues makes their survival less likely.
"The biggest worry of farms that see themselves as eligible for a trade-related bailout is that the delay may make it difficult to get the money," Montana State University professor Vincent Smith told the Atlantic.
Other red state farmers are also feeling pressure from the shutdown. Chris Gibbs — who grows corn and soybeans in Shelby County, Ohio — said he's been hoping for the shutdown to end soon so he can apply for a commodity loan at his local Farm Service Agency office. Agricultural Secretary Brooke Rollins recently announced that those offices will reopen and be staffed by employees working without pay in order to free up roughly $3 billion in assistance. But Gibbs, a former Republican who now chairs his local Democratic Party, said the "extreme pressure" caused by the shutdown and the tariffs means that some farms will still likely close despite the administration's efforts.
"We’re going to lose some farmers," Gibbs said.
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