Agriculture

Kansas grows more than half of America's grain sorghum and is the top wheat-producing state in the country. Kansas is #2 in cattle slaughter and #3 in cattle inventory. Two-thirds of Kansas land is closer to a sorghum field than to a suburb. The Agriculture Committee is the right room for a Kansas senator, and it is where Doc has worked every farm bill, every fertilizer fight, and every input-cost line item since arriving in the Senate.

On April 28, 2026, Doc introduced S. 4418 — the Lowering Input Costs for American Farmers Act — to eliminate the Biden-era countervailing duties on phosphate fertilizer imports from Morocco. The Texas A&M Agricultural and Food Policy Center estimates those duties have cost American farmers $6.9 billion between 2021 and 2025. Removing them is projected to cut phosphate fertilizer costs by more than 20% — roughly $150 per ton. Senators Grassley, Hyde-Smith, and Ernst joined as cosponsors. The bill is endorsed by the National Corn Growers Association, American Soybean Association, American Farm Bureau Federation, National Cotton Council, USA Rice, Sorghum Growers, and the National Association of Wheat Growers.

The Working Families Tax Cuts that Doc helped pass include $50 billion in Title I and crop insurance funding — the safety net Kansas growers cannot operate without. The 45Z Clean Fuel Production Credit covers sorghum-to-ethanol, which is where Kansas farmers actually capture margin on the bushels they already grow. The DIRECT Act (S. 3099) lets state-inspected beef cross state lines so Kansas processors can sell into neighboring markets without re-inspection drag. And the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act — which Doc led in the Senate — was signed into law in January 2026, restoring whole and 2% milk to the National School Lunch Program for the first time since 2010.

Every county. Every year. That is not a slogan. That is how a fifth-generation Kansas farm kid who delivered babies in Great Bend does the job.