Arkansas’s First Congressional District is home to a diversified agricultural economy. In the fertile Mississippi River Delta we grow cotton, rice, corn, soybeans, wheat, peanuts and even raise catfish. In stark contrast to the Delta stand the Ozark Foothills where we have poultry, cattle, and timber producers. More rice is produced in my congressional district than any other district in the nation. In fact, farm families in my district grow nearly half of all rice produced in the U.S. Annually, agriculture in Arkansas is a $16-billion economic juggernaut that employs over 260,000 Arkansans....More

Federal regulations can be maddening, but none more so than a current one that demands oil refiners use millions of gallons of a substance, cellulosic ethanol, that does not exist....More

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today, June 15, 2012, proposed its long awaited dust standard that sparked controversy within the agricultural community. The controversy arose when EPA staff announced the administrator would be “justified” in doubling the stringency of the current, so-called dust standard, officially known as the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for coarse particulate matter....More

The National Grange lauded President Obama's decision to sign an executive order that will make broadband expansion up to 90% cheaper and faster for those along federal lands and roadways.  ...More

President Barack Obama will conduct interviews with eight local television stations -- in mostly Republican-friendly parts of swing states -- to promote his Democratic administration’s efforts for rural communities....More

When the EPA lowered the regulatory boom on the state of Florida to force it to move from a narrative approach to regulating water pollution to using a numeric criteria, both environmentalists and agriculturalists sued. Ultimately, EPA prevailed. Based on that legal success, EPA is now turning its regulatory attention to a much wider swath of the U.S. – the entire Mississippi River Basin....More