Washington, D.C. – Today, House Agriculture Committee Chairman K. Michael Conaway (TX-11) welcomed newly-confirmed U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Sec. Sonny Perdue to Capitol Hill to testify on the “State of the Rural Economy.” Following the hearing, Chairman Conaway made the below statement: “Against the backdrop of a four-year, 50-percent decline in net farm income, Sec. Perdue’s comments... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - Today, Rep. Frank Lucas (OK-03), Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry, held the first hearing in a series designed to set the stage for the next farm bill. The subcommittee heard from a panel of witnesses, including farmers and ranchers, who shared their perspectives on the effectiveness of the conservation policies in the Agric... Read more »
Remarks as prepared for delivery: Good morning and welcome to today's hearing. For some of us, it's hard to believe that it's already farm bill time again. To some degree, it feels like we just finished hashing out the details of the last farm bill. But, it's true that we are already entering the 4th year of the Agricultural Act of 2014, and that means we must now set about the hard work of prepar... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - Today, the House Agriculture Committee held a hearing to review the economic challenges facing rural America. Members heard from several witnesses who highlighted these factors, including low farm commodity prices, declining net farm income, tightening credit conditions, a strong dollar, and unfair trade practices by foreign competitors. “There is real potential for a crisis in ... Read more »
Remarks as prepared for delivery: Good morning. We ordinarily kick things off every year with the Secretary of Agriculture offering testimony as our one and only witness. However, our new Secretary has not yet been confirmed. I have visited with Governor Perdue a number of times now, I believe he is an excellent choice, and I hope that he can be confirmed in short order so that he may begin the im... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - Today, the House Agriculture Committee completed its two-day examination of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) organization and program administration. Over the past two days, members of the committee heard from 25 undersecretaries, administrators, and other department officials across USDA’s seven mission areas, on a variety of topics, which included an accounting for ... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - Today, the Committee on Agriculture began Part I of a two-day hearing series examining U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) organization and program administration. USDA officials from the Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services (FNCS), Food Safety (FS), and Rural Development (RD) mission areas served as witnesses. This hearing series follows a similar series the committee held w... Read more »
Remarks as prepared: Today and tomorrow, we have before us most of the undersecretaries of the Department of Agriculture. Each of these witnesses is responsible for an important mission area within USDA. Accompanying our witnesses are administrators who manage agencies and programs within these larger mission areas. These folks lead the network of nearly 100,000 USDA employees who carry out the la... Read more »
Remarks as prepared for delivery: I am pleased that Secretary Vilsack could join us for this annual hearing to assess the economic conditions in farm country. Thank you for joining us, Mr. Secretary. In assessing the situation, I think it is fair to say that America’s farmers and ranchers are falling on some very hard times right now. Worse yet, I don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. To q... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - Following media reports that the U.S. Department of Agriculture intends to deny urgently needed assistance to American cotton farmers and the rural communities that depend on the U.S. cotton industry, House Agriculture Committee Chairman K. Michael Conaway (R-TX) issued the following statement. "I greatly appreciate that Secretary Vilsack has been taking time to consider the req... Read more »
