BROKEN BOW — Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE) made a stop in Broken Bow on Wednesday morning as part of a three stop roundtable tour with Nebraska agriculture leaders. During the stops, federal legislation was a main topic of discussion that he said will bring benefits to farmers and ranchers.
Ricketts, who previously served two terms as Nebraska’s governor before being appointed to the U.S Senate in 2023, held a discussion Tuesday in North Platte at the fairgrounds ahead of Wednesday stops in Broken Bow at the Chamber of Commerce office and Columbus later in the afternoon. Meeting with the media afterward, he said the sessions gave him a chance to hear from producers and local leaders on priorities ranging from trade to biofuels to emergency response.
“Today I started off by talking about what’s in the one big beautiful bill that’s going to be beneficial to agriculture,” Ricketts said. “For example, updating reference pricing for the first time in 11 years. Permanently fixing the death tax … would mean $200 billion in farm assets can go to the next generation and not the federal government. We also have double the amount of money going into programs like the foreign market development program … about $285 million total that will help us sell more of our products overseas.”
He added that the package also includes support for renewable fuels.
“About 40% of our corn crop goes to ethanol. We’re the second biggest ethanol state. So that’s a big deal for that,” said Ricketts.
Beyond farm policy, the Ricketts said the Broken Bow discussion also included wildfire response communication and mental health services.
“Some of the big takeaways there is improving the communication between the local, state, and federal government on fighting fires,” Ricketts said. “Also the importance of federal funding support to be able to help locals have the resources … and then mental health also became one of the topics … how we can leverage things like mental telehealth, how the federal government is going to support that.”
On the trade front, Ricketts said pushing for expanded global markets for Nebraska producers continues to be a priority.
“The United Kingdom has agreed to buy $900 million more a year of our ag products. They’re going to preference buying our ethanol … we’ve also got India, which is very protectionist when it comes to agriculture. Gaining them to open up is going to be a big deal if we can get that accomplished.”
The senator also voiced support for conventional livestock producers after Nebraska’s recent arm-shove of lab-grown meat.
“Beef is the most nutritionally dense food you can eat. You get as much protein in three ounces of beef as three cups of quinoa. And I don’t think anybody wants to eat three cups of quinoa. So we just need to go out there and just really educate the public about how beef is an important part of a healthy diet,” Ricketts said.
While the tour focused on agricultural issues, Ricketts was asked about the hot topic in Nebraska news: recent reports of a potential immigration detention center being established at the state’s Work Ethic Camp facility in McCook. Several outlets have reported that part of the site would be for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) use.
“President Trump got elected to clean up the border mess. He has taken illegal crossings down by 94%. And in the one big beautiful bill, we’ve passed a lot of money to be able to help clean up this mess,” Ricketts said. “This detention facility is part of the overall plan to try and clean up the mess the Biden administration left here. … From my time as governor, it seems that this facility would be really well suited to what Homeland Security needs to do with regard to detaining people. They’re generally going to be more lower risk, which is what the work ethic camp is. … I think this is a pretty good deal for Nebraska. It’s going to be continued investment in Nebraska and continued jobs.”
