Rep. Crawford contends Southerner as Ag Secretary will help Arkansas, offers glimpse of Obamacare unwind

U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Jonesboro, says having a Southerner as Agriculture Secretary will be good for Arkansas. He also says don’t look for a singular piece of legislation to replace the Affordable Care Act.

Crawford, who appeared on Talk Business & Politics this week, said former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, who has been nominated by President Trump as Agriculture Secretary, will be good for Arkansas farmers.

“I think that’s going to help provide a geographic balance that has been lacking in agriculture, certainly in policy development, for as long as I can remember. We’re just strictly outnumbered. We’ve seen tweets from members from up north that they wanted somebody from the Midwest. They’ve had somebody from the Midwest for the last 24 years,” Crawford said.

“I think it was a good pick, it provides some geographic balance. The reality is, at the legislative level, we’re outnumbered and so, it’s a lot easier to see Midwest priorities reflected in farm policy. Whereas we have, now, a counterbalance in the administration to help develop that in a way that’s a little more fair and a little more respective of the geographic disparity and the cultural and agricultural practices that are different around the country. So I think that’s a good pick.”

Crawford also said that Congressional efforts to “repeal and replace Obamacare” won’t likely come in a single piece of legislation, but could be layered through bills, executive action and possibly regulations.

“Because Obamacare is an all-inclusive, over-arching piece of legislation, they expect that what replaces it would be an over-arching piece of legislation with a name. And I’m not sure that that’s necessarily going to happen,” he said. “Whatever you might call it, the antithesis of Obamacare, are you going to call it Trumpcare? I don’t know. I don’t know that you’re going to see a single piece of legislation that fully repeals and replaces Obamacare. It’s going to come in a series of actions that take place not only at the executive level, but at the agency level and also at the legislative level to address that. As a single piece of legislation, I don’t know.”

Watch Rep. Crawford’s full interview in the video below.