Agriculture Department failure ti enact needed reforms in USDA farm loan programs has received criticism from Larry Combest (R-TX), Chairman of the Agriculture Subcommittee on Forestry, Resource Conservation, and Research. While USDA revealed plans during a Wednesday agriculture subcommittee hearing to restore loan eligibility for borrowers with past debt relief, Subcommittee Chairman Combest rais... Read more »
Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Chairman of the Agriculture Subcommittee on Department Operations, Nutrition and Foreign Agriculture, joined Second Harvest, the nation's largest charitable hunger relief organization, in releasing the report, "Hunger 1997: The Faces & Facts," at a news conference today on Capitol Hill Congressman Bob Goodlatte's Second Harvest Press Conference Statement "Welcome ... Read more »
The full House Committee on Agriculture, chaired by Congressman Bob Smith (R-OR), today passed the Forest Recovery and Protection Act (H.R. 2515), Smith's nationwide forest health legislation to provide for better forest science, greater agency accountability, and on-the-ground results to rehabilitate and protect America's precious forest resources. The Committee approved Smith's Forest Recovery a... Read more »
Acting to help the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prepare for the "Year 2000 Problem" and to end years of wasteful USDA spending on Information Technology (IT), the Subcommittee on Department Operations, Nutrition, and Foreign Agriculture today unanimously passed Chairman Goodlatte's (R-VA) "USDA Year 2000 Compliance Enhancement Act", granting the USDA's Chief Information Officer the additi... Read more »
Oregon Congressman Bob Smith, Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, today announced that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would not award a contract to breach southern Oregon's Elk Creek Dam, following weeks of intense efforts by the Congressman to convince the Corps to use a less destructive and less expensive method of providing fish passage. This afternoon, Colonel Robert Slusar of th... Read more »
Congressman Bob Smith (R-OR), Chairman of the House Committee onAgriculture, today praised the recently-announced agricultural trade agreement between the United States and Taiwan, calling the accord an important step toward a fair and mutually-profitable trading regime as Taiwan prepares to join the World Trade Organization (WTO). In a February 26 letter to U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Charle... Read more »
Congressman Bob Smith (R-OR), Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, and three key northwest lawmakers today criticized the Three Sovereigns Forum for failing to clearly define it's authority over Columbia Basin water use issues and for excluding a broad range of river use interests from it's decision making process. In a February 27th letter to Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber, Rep. Bob Sm... Read more »
By a unanimous voice vote, the U.S. House of Representatives today voted to send the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reauthorization Act of 1997 (H.R. 2534) to conference committee, moving the first major overhaul of agricultural research programs one step closer to fruition. In November of last year, the House approved H.R. 2534 by a vote of 291-125, but a rare parliamentary maneu... Read more »
Congressman Bob Smith (R-OR), Chairman of the House Committee of Agriculture, today praised the U.S. Trade Representative's (USTR) newly-announced pork and poultry trade agreement with the Philippines, just months after the Chairman led an Agriculture Committee delegation to the East Asian nation to protest the Philippine government's failure to implement the Uruguay Round's pork and poultry provi... Read more »
Congressman Bob Smith (R-OR), Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, and Congressman Charles Stenholm (D-TX), the Committee's Ranking Member, today pledged to support adequate U.S. assitance to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and released a letter from majority agriculture producer groups calling for increased IMF funding, in the wake of an IMF Asia rescue package that will cushion ... Read more »
