Washington, D.C. - Today, the House Agriculture Committee held a public hearing to conduct general oversight of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack testified, taking questions from committee members on various programs and projects the department manages and executes. Members referenced reports by USDA Inspector General Phyllis Fong (OIG) and the U.S. Government Accounta... Read more »
Remarks as prepared for delivery: I want to welcome the Secretary today and thank him for being here. He and his staff have worked hard to fulfill many of the Committee’s oversight requests this first seven months. We appreciate your cooperation and your staff working with my staff. It is Congress’ responsibility implicit in the U.S. Constitution and explicit in the House Rules to conduct oversigh... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - Today, Rep. Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson (PA-5), Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee's Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry, held a public hearing to review the implementation of conservation programs included in the Agricultural Act of 2014. The subcommittee heard from two panels of witnesses, including Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Chief Jason Weller and Fa... Read more »
Remarks as prepared: Good morning. Welcome to today’s hearing to review the implementation of conservation programs in the Agricultural Act of 2014. Since 1985, Congress created over 20 farm bill conservation programs to address specific natural resource concerns. With this piecemeal approach over the past 30 years, we were left with programs that started as regional initiatives and were duplicati... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - Today, Rep. Rick Crawford (R-AR), Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee’s General Farm Commodities and Risk Management Subcommittee, held a public hearing to review the financial health of farm country. With significantly lower commodity prices, net farm income has decreased substantially over the past two years. This impacts not only farmers and ranchers but also farm equ... Read more »
Remarks as prepared: This hearing on the financial health of farm country will come to order. During the Farm Bill debate, we heard a good bit about the relatively high prices farmers were receiving for their crops, and the suggestion was made by at least some folks that it was as good a time as any to discontinue the Farm Bill. Now that we are in year two of the Farm Bill, I thought it would be a... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - Today, Rep. Rick Crawford (R-AR), Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management held a public hearing to examine implementation of the 2014 Farm Bill. The Farm Bill was signed into law on February 7, 2014. The legislation both modernized and strengthened the safety net for farmers. By next week, most farmers will have ... Read more »
Remarks as prepared for delivery: Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this important hearing. As you know, I chaired this subcommittee for a number of years, and I cannot think of a better successor than you. I know you care deeply about the policies under the jurisdiction of this subcommittee and the farmers and ranchers that these policies are designed to serve. I mainly want to echo the Chairma... Read more »
Remarks as prepared for delivery: I want to welcome our witnesses, Administrator Willis and Administrator Dolcini. Thank you for being here, gentlemen, and thank you for all of the good work that you have done so far in implementing the Farm Bill. By Tuesday of next week, most farmers from across the country will have made the choices that we offered them under the Farm Bill. This will be the caps... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - Today, Rep. K. Michael Conaway, Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, held a hearing to review the state of the rural economy. The hearing comes just days after the one-year anniversary of the enactment of the 2014 Farm Bill. Implementation of the law was the main topic of discussion as members of the committee asked Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, about progres... Read more »
