Kelly Presses Trump for Action to Lower Food Costs for Arizona Families

"Arizona families cannot continue to bear the cost of rising food prices."

Today, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly pressed President Trump on how his administration's actions are driving up already high food costs for families across Arizona and the country, despite the President's repeated claims that grocery prices are "all down" and promise to lower costs for working families.

In his letter, Kelly details how tariffs, weak enforcement against corporate price-fixing, and cuts to food assistance and agricultural programs are keeping food prices high and putting added pressure on families, farmers, workers, and small businesses across the food supply chain.

"Despite your repeated claims that when 'you look at groceries, it's all down,' a year into your second term grocery prices remain high. In fact, December 2025 saw the biggest month-to-month jump in food prices since October 2022. You campaigned on a promise to lower costs for Americans, but little progress has been made-hardworking families in Arizona and across the nation still face high prices at the checkout line," said Kelly in his letter.

Kelly warned that the administration's blanket tariff policies are directly increasing food prices and harming domestic producers: "They impact nearly every product entering the United States, including produce, meat, dairy, and canned goods. When used in a smart way, tariffs can be an important tool that create American jobs and strengthen American manufacturing, which reduces costs by creating reliable domestic supply chains. However, your Administration's reckless approach is creating chaos-making it impossible for companies to plan long-term domestic investments and instead are solely serving as a tax on working families and business, increasing costs when people are already struggling. In addition to raising costs, your polices have led to retaliatory tariffs that hurt local agricultural producers, like the Arizona dairymen I met with in Tempe last year, putting American jobs at risk.

Kelly also urged the administration to immediately reinstate the Tomato Suspension Agreement, warning that its termination is raising prices and threatening jobs: "Terminating the TSA will not address the core factors impacting domestic tomato growers; rather, this decision just increases U.S. retail prices for tomatoes and threatens nearly 50,000 jobs in Arizona alone. I urge you to immediately reinstate the Tomato Suspension Agreement and rescind your universal tariffs on agricultural items in order to protect consumers and lower food prices. We need strategic trade policies that lower costs, strengthen our economy, and support American jobs-not ones that make life more expensive."

Kelly further raised concerns about corporate price-fixing in the food industry, calling for stronger enforcement and accountability: "In the last 25 years, the most dominant food and agribusiness companies have been fined over $2 billion for price-fixing and other anti-competitive practices. Large food companies are not being held accountable. […] To ensure wealthy corporations are not artificially hiking prices and causing undue harm on buyers, we must strengthen antitrust enforcement and the penalties corporations face when they engage in these practices. I encourage you to direct the Department of Justice and the FTC to aggressively investigate and prosecute corporations that engage in price-fixing, market manipulation, or other anti-competitive behavior."

Kelly also warned that proposed cuts on food assistance programs will worsen food insecurity and hurt small grocery stores, farmers, and food suppliers across Arizona: "SNAP allows hardworking Americans who would otherwise struggle to put food on the table. While American families are already struggling to afford their grocery bills, your One Big Beautiful Bill Act makes steep cuts to the food assistance programs that help them stay afloat. […] Nearly 80 percent of SNAP dollars are spent at traditional grocery stores. SNAP cuts reduce sales and negatively impact small, independent grocery stores and stores in low-income and rural areas, leading to a domino effect of job losses across the food supply chain."

Kelly urged the administration to reverse these policies and work with Congress to lower food prices: "Arizona families cannot continue to bear the cost of rising food prices. I encourage you to take swift action and work with us to lower the price of food for American families. Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter."

Click here to read the full letter.