As fire fighters nationwide gear up for the 1997 forest fire season in the wake of last year's 96,000 forest fires, Congressman Bob Smith (R-OR), Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, today said the U.S. Forest Service must place greater emphasis on managing forest resources to prevent catastrophic fires and avoid the use of prescribed fire in the high risk summer months. At a hearing to... Read more »
Oregon Congressman Bob Smith, Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, today pledged to fight an amendment, offered by Massachusetts Rep. Joe Kennedy (D), to elimintate the Timber Purchaser Road Credit Program, saying the amendment would hurt rural counties and schools, citing a recent Price Waterhouse report which concludes that the credit is not a sibsidy and that it's elimination would h... Read more »
Oregon Congressman Bob Smith, Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, today praised the House of Representatives' passage of the Quincy Library Group Forest Recovery and Economice Stability Act (H.R. 858), saying local efforts to reach consensus can produce far greater results than bureaucratic paper shuffling in Washington. The bill, introduced by Rep. Wally Herger (R-CA), establishes a f... Read more »
On the heels of the congressional vote to continue China's Most Favored Nation (MFN) trading status, Congressman Bob Smith (R-OR), Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, met today with China's Ambassador to the United States and urged the Chinese Government to drop it's ban on Pacific Northwest wheat, as well as U.S. citrus, and to travel to the United States to examine Northwest wheat an... Read more »
Oregon Congressman Bob Smith, Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, today blasted reports that President Bill Clinton has endoresed new air quality standards, widely believed to be based on poor science and which prompted fierce criticism from within the Administration itself, which could have negative effects on agriculture and small business. On May 14, Chairman Smith, Committee Vice C... Read more »
Congressman Bob Smith (R-OR), Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, voted today to support continued Most Favored Nation (MFN) trade treatment for China, citing the importance of China trade to America's farmers and ranchers in light of a new Congressional Research Service (CRS) report concluding American agriculture would lose billions in the absence of China MFN. "The Chinese market is... Read more »
U.S. Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck, testifying at the fifth in a series of Agriculture Committee forest health hearings, today supported the concept of active forest management, saying the Forest Service must "use all available tools" to manage it's federal forests, effectively endorsing Congressman Bob Smith's (R-OR) direction on forest health. At today's hearing, the Agriculture Committee ex... Read more »
Rep. Larry Combest (R-TX), Chairman of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Forestry, Resource Conservation, and Research, today began a series of hearings to thoroughly examine our nation's agriculture research infrastructure for the first time in fifteen years, as the Committee prepares to reauthorize agriculture research programs prior to the end of this fiscal year. The 1996 Farm Bill reautho... Read more »
Contending that new tax legislation can end the erroneous application of detrimental internal revenue service rulings for farmers, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Bob Smith (R-OR) and all five of the Committee's Subcommittee Chairmen have written Ways and Means Committee Bill Archer (R-TX), urging that Archer's Committee reassess the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) provisions of it's tax bill i... Read more »
The House Committee on Agriculture today approved instructions for budget reconciliation, committing $1.5 billion in new food stamp funds as required by the balanced budget agreement, but also allowing states to privatize administrative functions in the food stamp program, just weeks after the Clinton Administration rejected a similar request from the state of Texas. The House Budget Resolution fo... Read more »
