Washington, D.C. - Today, the House Committee on Agriculture held a hearing to review rising foreign agriculture subsidies. Members of the Committee heard from Dr. Darren Hudson, Director of the International Center for Agricultural Competitiveness (ICAC) at Texas Tech University, and Craig A. Thorn, partner at DTB Associates, LLP in Washington, DC. Hudson and Thorn testified concerning the scope ... Read more »
Remarks as prepared for delivery: This hearing on agricultural subsidies in foreign countries will come to order. I am pleased to have before us two expert witnesses on the topic of today’s hearing. I will not steal the thunder from our witnesses but it is important for me to observe that there are several studies listing the high and rising subsidies, tariffs, and non-tariff trade barriers being ... 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. - House Committee on Agriculture Chairman K. Michael Conaway (TX-11) and Conservation and Forestry Subcommittee Chairman Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson (PA-5) released the following statement in response to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers final “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) rule. This rule further obscures the original intent of the Clean Wat... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - Today, Rep. Jackie Walorski (IN-2), Chairwoman of the House Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Nutrition held a hearing on duplication and unmet needs in government nutrition programs. The subcommittee heard from researchers and practitioners who have first-hand experience of how the many federal nutrition programs serve families in need of assistance. The repeated theme am... Read more »
Remarks as prepared: Welcome to the next hearing in our review of the Past, Present, and Future of SNAP. Today we’ll discuss and examine the government’s duplication and inefficiencies of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Taxpayers and recipients deserve a thoughtful and thorough review of SNAP. They also deserve to know its relationship with other nutrition programs and how that affe... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - Today, the House Agriculture Committee approved H.R. 2393, a bill to amend the Agriculture Marketing Act of 1946, by a recorded vote of 38-6. A combination of 68 Democrats and Republicans joined Chairman K. Michael Conaway in introducing this bipartisan bill that will effectively repeal country of origin labeling requirements for beef, pork, and chicken, while leaving intact the... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - Today, the House Agriculture Committee approved H.R. 2394, the National Forest Foundation Reauthorization Act of 2015, by voice vote. Introduced by Conservation and Forestry Subcommittee Chairman Glenn Thompson (PA-5), this bipartisan bill will reauthorize the National Forest Foundation Act so the Foundation is able to have the resources to continue its work to ensure U.S. natio... Read more »
Remarks as prepared: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The National Forest Foundation has a simple mission – bring people together to restore and enhance our national forests and grasslands. Through the Foundation, we are able to leverage private and federal dollars to support our nation’s great forests in a variety of ways. These include planting trees, preserving wildlife habitat, surveying streams, rest... Read more »
