Remarks as prepared for delivery: For over six decades, the United States has played a leading role in global efforts to alleviate hunger and malnutrition and to enhance food security through international food aid. Today’s hearing marks the beginning of the Committee’s work to review those efforts. As we begin this process, it is important that we start off with an overview from the top, so I am ... Read more »
Remarks as prepared: Thank you, Chairman Conaway for today’s markup. As an original cosponsor, I remain in strong support of the “Resilient Federal Forests Act.” Since the inception of the national forest system in 1905, the fundamental mission of the Forest Service has been to manage our federal forests and grasslands. As a result, the Forest Service has played a critical role in rural America: p... Read more »
Remarks as prepared for delivery: I talk frequently about the importance of derivatives markets for managing risk. Today, the Committee will take up H.R. 2620 to allow cotton merchants, ginners, and shippers the opportunity to try and craft a new futures contract that better matches the risks they face in a global market place. H.R. 2620 would provide flexibility to U.S. futures exchanges on how f... Read more »
Remarks as prepared: Good morning. Welcome to today’s hearing to review the implementation of conservation programs in the Agricultural Act of 2014. Since 1985, Congress created over 20 farm bill conservation programs to address specific natural resource concerns. With this piecemeal approach over the past 30 years, we were left with programs that started as regional initiatives and were duplicati... Read more »
Remarks as prepared for delivery: I want to welcome our witnesses to today’s hearing and thank them for taking the time to share their perspectives as we explore the means to helping families climb the economic ladder. This hearing, like those before, builds upon the Committee’s top-to-bottom review of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Throughout this process, we have had an ... Read more »
Remarks as prepared for delivery: This hearing on agricultural subsidies in foreign countries will come to order. I am pleased to have before us two expert witnesses on the topic of today’s hearing. I will not steal the thunder from our witnesses but it is important for me to observe that there are several studies listing the high and rising subsidies, tariffs, and non-tariff trade barriers being ... Read more »
Remarks as prepared: This hearing on the financial health of farm country will come to order. During the Farm Bill debate, we heard a good bit about the relatively high prices farmers were receiving for their crops, and the suggestion was made by at least some folks that it was as good a time as any to discontinue the Farm Bill. Now that we are in year two of the Farm Bill, I thought it would be a... Read more »
Remarks as prepared: Welcome to the next hearing in our review of the Past, Present, and Future of SNAP. Today we’ll discuss and examine the government’s duplication and inefficiencies of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Taxpayers and recipients deserve a thoughtful and thorough review of SNAP. They also deserve to know its relationship with other nutrition programs and how that affe... Read more »
Remarks as prepared: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The National Forest Foundation has a simple mission – bring people together to restore and enhance our national forests and grasslands. Through the Foundation, we are able to leverage private and federal dollars to support our nation’s great forests in a variety of ways. These include planting trees, preserving wildlife habitat, surveying streams, rest... Read more »
Remarks as prepared for delivery: Good morning. We have under consideration the bill, H.R. 2393. This bill is narrowly drafted to eliminate the requirement for country of origin labeling for meat products from cattle and hogs for which the WTO ruled against the program. We also eliminate the requirement for chicken, which faced high costs and little if any quantifiable benefits, and asked to have ... Read more »
