SCOOP: How Rep. Jason Smith is taking Trump's Big, Beautiful Bill and trade agenda to American farmers

As a multi-generation family farmer, Rep. Jason Smith (R., Mo.) knows a thing or two about agriculture. And Smith, the chairman of the House’s Ways and Means Committee, spent much of congressional recess visiting with farmers in and around his district in rural Missouri.

The Washington Reporter obtained Smith’s recess schedule, and the lawmaker visited almost two dozen farms and other agribusinesses across southeast and south cepitching the wins of both President Donald Trump’s myriad trade deals and of the One Big, Beautiful Bill (OBBB).

As Chair of Ways and Means, Smith has been in the driver’s seat about the OBBB’s passage; when he wasn’t in Missouri during recess, he was hitting the trail with his GOP colleagues, like Rep. Vince Fong (R., Calif.), who previously spoke with the Reporter about Smith’s messaging successes on the OBBB.

Throughout congressional recess, House and Senate Republicans — along with Trump himself — have made the case to voters that the GOP’s signature legislative win of 2025 will help Americans’ bottom line.

During Smith’s annual Farm Tour of 2025, he spoke about the big ticket aspects of the bill, like no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, the extension of the popular Trump tax cuts, but also drilled down with farmers in America’s heartland about how the bill will help them and their industries specifically.

Smith’s trip to the Missouri Cattleman’s Association typified that goal. While with the cattlemen, Smith “discussed how the improvements to disaster programs, the new Agricultural Trade Promotion & Facilitation program, and baseline funding for conversation programs, will help cattlemen across the nation.”

While Smith met with the Missouri Soybean Association, he explained that, while the Farm Bill hasn’t yet passed, around 80 percent of it was already incorporated into the OBBB — and he contrasted Trump’s trade wins with the failures of his predecessor, President Joe Biden.

“During President Trump’s first term, we had a $5 billion agricultural trade surplus,” Smith noted. “In the past 4 years, that number has slipped to a $32 billion deficit. President Trump is reworking our global trade relationships, so they better serve producers, like soybean producers here in Missouri.”

When it comes to Trump’s trade agenda more broadly, Smith’s visit to Chateau Sainte Genevieve Winery typified his message to America’s farmers. “President Trump’s historic trade deal with the EU and the monumental tax relief Congress delivered for small businesses in the One, Big, Beautiful Bill will help businesses, like [Chateau Sainte Genevieve Winery], secure tomorrow’s harvest and grow their business,” he explained.

Trump’s trade wins for farmers go well beyond the European Union; at Peterson Feed and Farm, Smith explained how deals with the United Kingdom and Australia will help too, “hether it’s the dropped tariffs on US beef or permanency of key tax deductions.”

While recess is over, Smith made it clear to the farmers he met with that his work is not done. One of the next challenges is working with Brooke Rollins, the Secretary of Agriculture, to establish regulatory certainty for farmers, which was lost during the Biden administration.

Smith also discussed other legislation of his own, like the VFD Repeal Act, which would repeal the Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) rule that he says “tie[s] up family farms with unnecessary paperwork and delays.”