Remarks as prepared for delivery: Good morning. Today, the Committee on Agriculture will shift its focus from legislation and oversight, to one of a less political nature, but of significant importance nonetheless. Land-grant institutions are often categorized as 1862, 1890, and 1994 institutions, based on the date of the legislation that designated most of them with land-grant status. August 30th... Read more »
Remarks as prepared for delivery: Good morning. Today we will consider the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015. I’d like to first commend the sponsors, Representatives Mike Pompeo of Kansas and G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina for their hard work and leadership. I would also like to thank Ranking Member Peterson, Subcommittee Chairman Davis and Subcommittee Ranking Member DelBene for the... Read more »
Remarks as prepared for delivery: Thank you for joining us this morning as the Subcommittee on Livestock and Foreign Agriculture continues to build off the work begun here just two weeks ago at the Full Committee level. At that time, we heard from both USDA and USAID officials who are charged with implementing U.S. international food aid programs about some of the things that are working and other... Read more »
Remarks as prepared for delivery: The ban on crude oil exports was a 1970s effort to protect the U.S. economy and U.S. consumers, but over the past 40 years it has achieved the opposite result. While it may have been well-intentioned at the time of enactment, the ban on crude oil exports is an antiquated relic and it is disrupting global energy markets, reducing domestic employment, and slowing ec... Read more »
Remarks as prepared: Today the subcommittee examined the tools and capabilities of USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service to assist food producers market their products. As we look more closely at the types of products consumers are demanding, we need to have the programs in place to ensure that the claims made on product labels are truthful and not misleading. Farmers want and need to provide cons... Read more »
Remarks as prepared: Good afternoon. I would like to welcome everyone to the Subcommittee on Biotechnology, Horticulture and Research. For the past several months, the Committee has evaluated aspects of agricultural marketing. As we have observed, consumers, ourselves included, are becoming increasingly savvy. As the number of choices available to us have increased, so has our desire to locate and... Read more »
Remarks as prepared for delivery: Thank you to Chairman Ryan and his Committee for hosting the first joint hearing between our two committees as we explore how our welfare system can discourage work. It’s surprising that our Committees have not engaged formally before given the overlap in our recipient populations. According to the most recent SNAP characteristics report: • 20 percent of SNAP reci... Read more »
Remarks as prepared for delivery: Thank you to Chairman Ryan and Subcommittee Chairman Boustany for hosting this historic joint hearing between our two committees as we better explore how our welfare system can discourage work. As the chair of the Nutrition Subcommittee, we have spent the past five months exploring the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps. Our revie... Read more »
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 »
