Source: United States Senator for Missouri Roy Blunt
WASHINGTON – This week, U.S. Senators Roy Blunt (Mo.) and John Thune (S.D.) led 9 of their Senate Republican colleagues in sending a letter to President Biden to raise concerns over the administration’s use of the financial regulatory system to advance its extreme environmental agenda under the guise of mitigating banks’ and credit unions’ exposure to climate risks.
“The viability of farms and ranches across the nation are essential to the viability of rural America and our nation’s food security,” the senators wrote. “That is why the rhetoric and actions taken by your administration to use the financial regulatory system as a back-door approach to set agriculture policy and advance such overreach is so concerning, as this downward pressure from Washington bureaucrats is not only felt by Wall Street firms, but by our nation’s smallest banks and credit unions as well.”
The senators emphasized that the administration’s current efforts could harm farmers’ and ranchers’ access to capital and compromise our nation’s food security.
The senators continued, “We believe banks and credit unions are well positioned to continue responsibly serving their farm and ranch clients, many of which they have served for decades. Any reduction in lending by banks and credit unions to the agriculture sector – or to any sector that is disliked by its political opponents – would not only harm the businesses themselves, but directly harm consumers due to increased costs of food and energy that would inevitably occur as a result of reduced supply. Further, increasingly onerous federal policies will undercut the agriculture industry’s voluntary investments to deepen their ongoing stewardship of natural resources.”
In addition to Blunt and Thune, the letter was signed by U.S. Senators Richard Burr (N.C.), John Cornyn (Texas), Ted Cruz (Texas), Deb Fischer (Neb.), Josh Hawley (Mo.), John Hoeven (N.D.), Roger Marshall (Kan.), Mike Rounds (S.D.), and Marco Rubio (Fla.).
Click here to read the full letter.