U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Jonesboro, has been hopping these days. The First District Congressman, whose district includes Prairie County, is part of the Gang of Eight due to his role as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. He also serves on the House Agriculture Committee.

With the U.S.-Israel offensive in Iran, Crawford has been in many sensitive meetings over the past two weeks, but he’s also using his influence to push the recently passed House version of a Farm Bill forward.

Crawford visited with The Grand Prairie Herald Editor & Publisher Roby Brock earlier this month.

Brock: The Farm Bill has moved out of the agriculture committee and is headed to the House now. When will we see next action on that?

Crawford: We’ve got a pretty limited window of opportunity on the floor. And I think I know the chairman has made the case, and those of us who represent rural America have made a pretty strong case that this is important. The reality is 93% of rural America is represented by Republicans. It’s important that we are moving this piece of legislation because rural America counts. It’s an essential part of our national security strategy, our ability to feed and clothe ourselves as a national security imperative, and the investments we make to secure that ability is important. And that’s why this, to me, is a national security issue.

Brock: How quickly can the House move to help farmers?

Crawford: I hope that they’ll put this on the floor quickly and that we can obviously reconcile this with the Senate version, that they’re working quickly as well. This is not something that will linger on indefinitely, but hopefully maybe before August break, we’ll have an opportunity to do something productive and move the needle on this. But American farmers are in dire straits right now and all that we can do to deliver help as much is needed right now.

Brock: Just clarifying, you think that this can be wrapped up by August 1st?

Crawford: No, I said I hope that we can get some floor time and get it moved before we go to August break. Doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ll be able to conference that and have it signed, sealed and delivered before August. But I think the necessary floor action to get us to that point is that we’re in that window. I’m going to be as positive as I can be about it, but the reality is that conferencing will continue to, if we were able to move this on the floor before August break, that conferencing would take place during the August break. It would be likely that when we return from August that we might have an opportunity to vote on something and be able to deliver a farm bill by the end of the year.