Emergency farm aid designed to place money quickly in the hands of financially struggling producers cleared Congress Wednesday afternoon, matching the Secretary of Agriculture's highest estimated disaster funding needs. As designed by Congress, within two weeks of the president's signature the $8.7 billion aid package will deliver $5.5 billion to farmers, each receiving an amount equal to their 1... Read more »
On Friday, October 1, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), chairman of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Department Operations, Oversight, Nutrition, and Forestry, introduced legislation aimed at restoring financial accountability to the U.S. Forest Service. "The Forest Service has shown little if any accountability to the American people for its policies or its finances. Giving the agency increased fun... Read more »
At a hearing today of the House Committee on Agriculture, Chairman Larry Combest (R-TX) led Members in a review of the FY 1999 Russian food aid program in light of a recent request from the Russian government for additional aid in the upcoming year. "Providing food aid to needy countries is the right thing to do for humanitarian reasons, but it also greatly helps American producers who are experie... Read more »
Critical of shortcomings of the World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement process, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Larry Combest (R-TX) and Ranking Member Charlie Stenholm (D-TX) on Friday introduced H.R. 2991, "The Carousel Retaliation Act" that strengthens America's position when other nations fail to abide by decisions in international trade disputes. The new American strategy embo... Read more »
As farmers and ranchers face the second consecutive year of the worst farm crisis in recent memory, the U.S. House of Representatives today passed by a vote of 240 to 175, the FY 2000 Agriculture Appropriations Conference Report which contains $8.7 billion in emergency farm relief. "There is no doubt we needed to pass this legislation," said House Agriculture Committee Chairman Larry Combest (R-TX... Read more »
By voice vote, the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved major improvements to federal crop insurance law. H.R. 2559, The Agricultural Risk Protection Act of 1999, makes across-the-board cuts in farmer-paid premiums, provides affordable insurance that protects producers against price and production volatility, increases producers' insurable yields, and initiates new risk management ... Read more »
President Clinton has dashed farm families' financial hopes with a veto that the House Agriculture Committee Chairman says ignores the needs of farmers and ranchers. "The President continues to pass up the opportunity to help rural Americans with this veto to a host of producer tax benefits. Even in this time of critical need, when cash income is scarce, farmers are penalized by a rigid and unfair... Read more »
Today, the House Agriculture Committee passed by voice vote legislation (H.R. 2389) which would provide rural areas with financial stability in revenues used for local schools and roads. Because the Forest Service is the dominant landowner in many rural communities, and localities are powerless to tax the agency, since 1908 the government has shared twenty-five percent of the revenue derived from ... Read more »
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Larry Combest (R-TX) today announced his intention to convene a series of hearings early next year to evaluate various issues related to current and future American farm policy. "The volatility of markets and the unpredictable nature of weather presents us with constant challenges in writing good agricultural policy," Combest said. "We simply don't need to wait... Read more »
At the first of two hearings this week addressing the crisis facing America's farmers and ranchers, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Larry Combest (R-TX), brought representatives from major commodity and producer associations together to review difficulties facing their constituents and hear their suggestions on how Congress can help alleviate the current crisis. "We have heard a lot of discus... Read more »
