Washington, D.C. - Today, the House Agriculture Committee held a hearing to examine the oil and gas industry’s impact on rural America. While the committee focuses primarily on the economic impacts of agriculture, many rural communities that depend upon agriculture also rely upon the economic activity generated by energy production. Today’s hearing allowed committee Members to focus on upstream oi... Read more »
Remarks as prepared for delivery: Good morning, and welcome to today’s hearing. This committee is charged with the responsibility of representing rural America and the economies that drive those communities. As such, we will continue to diligently review the farm economy, especially given the recent 56 percent drop in net farm income and the hard times that inevitably come along with that. I, alon... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - Today, House Agriculture Committee Chairman K. Michael Conaway (R-TX) delivered remarks on the House floor in favor of H.R. 1567, the Global Food Security Act of 2016. Watch the video and view the official remarks below. Remarks as prepared for delivery: "Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1567, the Global Food Security Act of 2016. "With the world population rapidly i... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - Today, House Agriculture Committee Chairman K. Michael Conaway (R-TX) sent a letter to Gina McCarthy, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), requesting information regarding EPA’s $3 million cooperative agreement with the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission that funded an advocacy campaign attacking farmers and ranchers in Washington State. The advoca... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - Today, the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Biotechnology, Horticulture, and Research gathered to hear a presentation by the National 4-H Conference participants concerning the future of agriculture in the United States. The National 4-H Organization is the nation’s largest youth development organization that serves to help its six million student members better understand the ... Read more »
Good afternoon and thank you all for joining us. For the past several years, youth participants in the National 4-H Conference have met with members of Congress and made presentations to federal agencies and House Agriculture Committee members and staff. Last year I had the privilege to chair a hearing where we heard from 17 distinguished 4-H delegates whose presentation highlighted the importance... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - House Agriculture Committee Chairman K. Michael Conaway (R-TX) announced today that the committee will begin a series of hearings titled Focus on the Farm Economy. Each of the six subcommittees will examine growing pressure in rural America from the perspective of the subcommittee. The first hearing in the series—Focus on the Farm Economy: Growing Farm Financial Pressure—will be... 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 »
