Washington, D.C. - Today, House Agriculture Committee Chairman K. Michael Conaway (R-TX) issued the following statement to reconfirm the committee's commitment to overseeing the derivatives markets this Congress. The House passed H.R. 2289 on June 9, with no corresponding Senate action, which would reauthorize the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The Commission has been unauthorized si... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - Today, House Agriculture Committee Chairman K. Michael Conaway (R-TX) issued the following statement regarding the multilateral agreement reached at the 10th WTO Ministerial Conference in Nairobi, Kenya. “I appreciate the efforts of Ambassador Froman and his team in working to put an end to foreign export subsidies. “The agreement reached in Nairobi was never expected to reduce ... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - Today, House Agriculture Committee Chairman K. Michael Conaway (R-TX) issued the following statement upon the unveiling of the fiscal year 2016 Omnibus Appropriations bill. “This responsible funding bill is a win for rural America, and I commend Chairman Hal Rogers and House leadership for including many top priorities of farmers and ranchers. I encourage all of my colleagues, e... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - Today, House Agriculture Committee Chairman K. Michael Conaway (R-TX) issued the following statement in response to the inclusion of language repealing mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016, also known as the omnibus. “Back in June, the House overwhelmingly passed language to repeal mandatory COOL for products challenged by ou... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - Suffering under combined pressures of natural disasters and predatory foreign competition by China, India, and others, financially struggling American cotton farmers received strong backing from Capitol Hill today as 100 Members of the House of Representatives urged U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to use legal authority provided under the 2014 Farm Bill to provide cruc... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - Today, the House Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Biotechnology, Horticulture, and Research held a hearing to discuss USDA’s use of the Census of Agriculture authority to acquire farmer’s personal financial information. The Census of Agriculture, which is conducted every five years, is an important tool used by economists; state, local, and federal policy-makers; financia... Read more »
Remarks as prepared: Today the subcommittee will begin a public dialogue with USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) regarding concerns raised by producers pertaining to a perceived abuse of discretion in conducting the Census of Agriculture. The Census of Agriculture is conducted every 5 years by NASS, the most recent census being taken in 2012. Data collected from the Census of A... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - Today, the House Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management held a hearing to examine the current state of the U.S. cotton industry. Members heard from a variety of stakeholders—producers, warehousers, ginners, and agricultural lenders—on the current situation unfolding in the cotton belt. As Congress was crafting the 2014 Farm Bill, ref... Read more »
Remarks as prepared: As most of you are aware, we have a very serious situation unfolding in the cotton belt right now. The purpose of this hearing is to hear from the folks who are directly affected on the front lines. I think it is important that we hear from the folks on this panel as they articulate how difficult the circumstances are right now and what may lie in store if mitigating action is... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - Today, the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) arbitration panel announced its final ruling that the United States’ Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) requirements for livestock and meat imports have cost our trading partners over $1 billion dollars. Canada and Mexico are now authorized to impose retaliatory tariffs in that amount against U.S. exports. House Agriculture Committee Ch... Read more »
