US Rep. Crawford weighs in on Iran, Farm Bill

Serving on two crucial House committees has U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Jonesboro, hopping these days.

The First District Congressman 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 week. The agri panel pushed its version of the 2026 Farm Bill out of committee this week.

Crawford visited with Talk Business & Politics Editor-in-Chief Roby Brock on Friday (March 6) on both subjects.

Brock: Let’s begin with Iran. We’ve obviously seen an incredible amount of military action in that country and around the Middle East. Give me a clarification. Do you believe we are at war with Iran?

Crawford: Well, it’s hard to say we’re not at war when we have all these military operations taking place. There’s no formal declaration. There’s been no formal requests from the president of Congress beyond his current Article II authorities under which he’s exercising these actions. So technically, no, we’re not. And it will probably stay that way until such time as the president reaches a point where he’s constitutionally required to come and request authorization for further action. We’re not there yet. And it may not come to that. This can be resolved, completed, if you will. And we’re way ahead of schedule from what the objectives were and the timeline prescribed. I’d say we’re actually well ahead of schedule. So it may not come to that.

As someone who remembers vividly 1979 and also as someone who has been targeted by Iranians myself back in 1988, we’ve had a 47-year predicate for this action and President Trump has been really the only president who was willing to exercise on that. I think we reached a point at which we could no longer tolerate the Iranians belligerent behavior and their designs on not just the region, but even to be a global threat.

Brock: Tell me what you expect the outcome or the resolution of all of this action to be.

Crawford: I think the expected outcome would be to save Iran for the Iranian people, get rid of that oppressive regime and allow the Iranian people to engage in self-determination on their own terms. I think that’s the end game here. This is not nation building. The primary objective wasn’t regime change. It was to degrade and demolish the Iranian regime’s ability to make war on the region. And we’re part of that region because we have allies in the region that we work with closely that we work to protect Kuwait, the Emirates, Saudi Arabia.

It’s important that we have a peaceful region. Iran has been a persistent threat to that peace for 47 years and getting worse because of their obsession with nuclear weapons development and their ability to deliver. And so that along with their ballistic missiles and their Navy have been degraded significantly. We’ve achieved air superiority. We can strike with impunity now, and it’s just a matter of time before this all comes unraveled and the Iranian people are free to seek their own way. And I think it’s going to be a good way. Based on what we’re seeing with the popular uprisings and demonstrations calling for an ouster of the current regime, I think we’re going to see some productive days ahead for Iran.

Brock: I know our time is limited, so I’m going to switch gears and go to the Farm Bill that 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.

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 said 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. And 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.