WASHINGTON – With inflation reaching new record-setting heights in February, U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR), ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, is calling it a “national emergency” and urging the Biden administration to prioritize driving down costs.

Boozman joined his Senate Republican colleagues at a press conference at the U.S. Capitol to highlight the dramatic rise in consumer prices over the past year as shown by the Department of Labor's (DOL) latest consumer price index (CPI).  

“When costs go up for farmers and ranchers, it’s a bad day for rural America. It’s bad day for everyone who works so hard to purchase the food that they need. And in essence, everybody loses,” Boozman said during the press conference.“This is a national emergency. What I would like to do is to get the administration to focus on this. It affects everyone in America.” 

The CPI report, a key gauge of inflation, shows consumer prices spiked another 0.8 percent in February bringing the total rise to 7.9 percent over the past year. The latest DOL figures released Thursday identified rising prices for gasoline, housing and food drove the inflation spike.

Below you can find the chart Boozman used during his remarks to highlight high input costs for family farmers and ranchers, which in turn drive consumer food prices up.