Acting swiftly to end waste, fraud, and abuse in the food stamp program, the House Committee on Agriculture today overwhelmingly passed H.R. 1000, a bill requiring states to establish systems to verify that prisoners are not participating in the food stamp program. On Monday, The General Accounting Office (GAO) issued a report which concluded that millions of dollars are wasted in food stamp overp... Read more »
Oregon Congressman Bob Smith, Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, and Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Chairman of the Agriculture Subcommittee on Department Operations, Nutrition, and Foreign Agriculture, today expressed dismay and outrage at a General Accounting Office (GAO) report suggesting that millions of dollars in food stamp payments are wasted in overpayments to households th... Read more »
Agriculture Committee Opens Hearings on Minority Farmers: Bi-Partisan Atmosphere Keys Inquiry into Discrimination Charges Oregon Congressman Bob Smith, Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, and bi-partisan leaders on the committee today announced the opening of hearings on charges of racial discrimination in programs and functions of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), as the comm... Read more »
Oregon Congressman Bob Smith, Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, and Texas Congressman Charles W. Stenholm, the Committee's Ranking Democrat, have led some 100 members of Congress in urging Budget Committee Chairman John R. Kasich (R-OH) to take agriculture's historical contributions to budget savings and last year's dramatic changes to farm programs into account as budget considerati... Read more »
An increasingly concerned Congressman Larry Combest (R-TX), Chairman of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Forestry, Resource Conservation, and Research, today praised the historical benefits of the Conservation Reservation Program (CRP), but remained uneasy about the Agriculture Department's final rule on the program, as the subcommittee opened it's first oversight hearing of the 105th Congres... Read more »
Members of Congress dedicated to finding proactive, cooperative measures to improve forest health will hold a press conference on Thursday, February 27 to announce the introduction of the Quincy Library Group Forest Recovery and Economic Stability Act of 1997. The bill, to be introduced by Rep. Wally Herger (R-CA), establishes a five year pilot project to test innovative approaches to forest manag... Read more »
Oregon Congressman Bob Smith, Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, today praised Mexico's decision to import cherries from Oregon, Washington, and California, accepting a phytosanitary dispute resolution under terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). "There's no question that Mexico had no scientific basis for excluding U.S. cherries. Eight months ago, a NAFTA dispute r... Read more »
Calling a strong and viable farm credit system a key goal of agriculture policy makers in an era of declining government support, Rep. Larry Combest, Chairman of the Agriculture Subcommittee on Forestry, Resource Conservation, and Research, released a list of witnesses for his subcommittee field hearing on agricultural credit in Lubbock, Texas on Friday, February 21. A complete witness list for th... Read more »
Oregon Congressman Bob Smith, Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, reacted cautiously today to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) final rule on the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), warning that farmers of winter crops have been adversely affected by USDA's tardiness in issuing the rule and need quick guidance from USDA to prepare for Fall planting. (Audio tape featuring Smit... Read more »
Oregon Congressman Bob Smith, Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, has urged President Clinton to discuss non-tariff trade barriers to U.S. Agriculture with Chilean President Eduardo Frei during Frei's upcoming visit to the United States. Fresh on the heels of a trade mission to consider fast-track negotiating authority for folding Chile into the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAF... Read more »
