Washington, D.C. - Today, Rep. Rodney Davis (IL-13), Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee Subcommittee on Biotechnology, Horticulture, and Research, held a public hearing to review the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) marketing programs. Dr. Craig Morris, Deputy Administrator of the USDA Agriculture Marketing Service (AMS) Livestock and Seed Program provided an overview of A... Read more »
Remarks as prepared: Today the subcommittee examined the tools and capabilities of USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service to assist food producers market their products. As we look more closely at the types of products consumers are demanding, we need to have the programs in place to ensure that the claims made on product labels are truthful and not misleading. Farmers want and need to provide cons... Read more »
Remarks as prepared: Good afternoon. I would like to welcome everyone to the Subcommittee on Biotechnology, Horticulture and Research. For the past several months, the Committee has evaluated aspects of agricultural marketing. As we have observed, consumers, ourselves included, are becoming increasingly savvy. As the number of choices available to us have increased, so has our desire to locate and... Read more »
Today, the House Agriculture Nutrition Subcommittee held a joint hearing with the House Committee on Ways and Means Human Resources Subcommittee addressing how certain welfare programs and related benefits can discourage work as a result of the high effective marginal tax rates they impose on certain populations. Read more »
Remarks as prepared for delivery: Thank you to Chairman Ryan and his Committee for hosting the first joint hearing between our two committees as we explore how our welfare system can discourage work. It’s surprising that our Committees have not engaged formally before given the overlap in our recipient populations. According to the most recent SNAP characteristics report: • 20 percent of SNAP reci... Read more »
Remarks as prepared for delivery: Thank you to Chairman Ryan and Subcommittee Chairman Boustany for hosting this historic joint hearing between our two committees as we better explore how our welfare system can discourage work. As the chair of the Nutrition Subcommittee, we have spent the past five months exploring the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps. Our revie... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - Today, House Agriculture Committee Chairman K. Michael Conaway issued the following statement in response to new Senate legislation that contradicts the House-passed bill (H.R. 2393) which repeals mandatory country of origin labeling (COOL) for beef, pork, and chicken. Introduced by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), the Senate legislation leaves in place several of these burdensome m... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - Today, the House Agriculture Committee began a full-scale review of U.S. international food aid programs with a hearing focused on the nation’s international efforts to alleviate hunger and malnutrition and to enhance food security. The U.S. government provides international food aid through a variety of programs administered by either the U.S. Agency for International Developme... Read more »
Remarks as prepared for delivery: For over six decades, the United States has played a leading role in global efforts to alleviate hunger and malnutrition and to enhance food security through international food aid. Today’s hearing marks the beginning of the Committee’s work to review those efforts. As we begin this process, it is important that we start off with an overview from the top, so I am ... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - This week, Agriculture Committee Chairman K. Michael Conaway announced Rep. Trent Kelly (MS-1) will join the committee. Rep. Kelly will serve on the Livestock and Foreign Agriculture Subcommittee as well as the Commodity Exchanges, Energy and Credit Subcommittee. “Agriculture is vital to the economy in the State of Mississippi, and I am proud to have the opportunity to represent... Read more »
