Opening Statements

Today, Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Chairman Tracey Mann (KS-01) delivered the following opening statement at today's subcommittee hearing “The State of the Livestock Industry: Producer Perspectives.

It is an honor to chair this hearing of the House Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry in the 119^th Congress. As a fifth generation Kansan having grown up on my family farm, I rode pens and doctored thousands of sick cattle at our preconditioning feedlot. I understand the grit, tenacity, and courage that it takes to make a living in agriculture, and the burden of responsibility for feeding the world that comes along with it.

Chairing this subcommittee for the second Congress in a row is a unique honor for me as I represent the Big First, where producers sell $10 billion worth of livestock, dairy, poultry, and products like beef, milk, and eggs every year.

That does not happen in a vacuum. It takes the entire animal agriculture chain to make that happen – and we see it all in the Big First. From the producer to the feedlot and from the harvest facility to the distributor, every role is important in delivering protein to the market and to the consumer.

During the 118^th Congress, Members of this Committee traveled the country to visit with farmers, ranchers, and agricultural producers about the need for a five-year Farm Bill that is long enough to provide certainty and short enough to respond to market changes. Chairman Thompson and I hosted more than 150 Kansans at a listening session in the middle of a wheat field near Gypsum, Kansas, and I suspect that many of the issues raised there will be raised again today.

I was pleased to see those issues directly addressed in the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024, which passed on a bipartisan basis out of this Committee last year. That legislation would have maintained American food independence, invested tax dollars where we could see a return on those dollars, protected crop insurance, promoted trade programs that helped America remain competitive and secure, conducted rigorous oversight of the executive branch, promoted animal health, invested in agricultural research in America’s land-grant universities, and more. As the Chairman of this Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry, I was proud of that legislation. And as a Kansan, I was proud, too. I am eager to hear from you all today about what’s working, what should be reconsidered, where additional investment may be required, and where the federal government needs to get out of your way. As time has taught us, even if well intended, more legislation and regulation is almost never the answer.

The past four years under the Biden Administration were a perfect example of what can happen when the government gets in the way. Whether it was its proposed salmonella framework that would have increased costs for producers and consumers with no real impact on public health; its botched response to the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza; or its water regulations which would have put several processing facilities out of business, we must learn from these mistakes and not hamstring America’s farmers, ranchers, and agricultural producers.

As we work to craft the next Farm Bill, we look forward to today’s conversation and to continuing our work together in the 119^th Congress.