WEEKLY ROUNDUP
June 17, 2016

House Agriculture Committee Action
On Tuesday, June 14, the House Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Commodity Exchanges, Energy, and Credit held its final hearing in a series examining the impact of the Dodd-Frank Act on derivatives markets. Members of the subcommittee reviewed the impact of mandatory clearing and trade execution requirements on markets and end-users.

Last week, the House Agriculture Committee unveiled a new blog, Homegrown, to chronicle daily life of American farmers and ranchers from the perspective of producers. Throughout the year, Homegrown will feature periodic updates from two farmers: Noah Hultgren of Kandiyohi County, Minnesota, and Shawn Holladay of Lamesa, Texas. Readers will get a glimpse into the daily workload and challenges producers face, from spring planting through the fall harvest. Read our first post on Hultgren farms here


Next Week at the Ag Committee
Wednesday, June 22, 2016 – 10:00 a.m.
1300 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C.
Full Committee – Public Hearing
RE: Past, Present, and Future of SNAP: Evaluating Effectiveness and Outcomes
in Nutrition Education


Thursday, June 23, 2016 – 10:00 a.m.
1300 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C.
Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management – Public Hearing
RE: Big Data and Agriculture: Innovation in the Air


Must Reads
Bloomberg: Credit crunch for farm renters compounds stress on U.S. growers

Agri-Pulse: Senate panel OKs EPA bill to block WOTUS rule, species listings

Des Moines Register: Senate lawmakers nearing a deal on GMO labeling


Members in the Media
Rep. Mike Rogers (AL-3) in Alabama Today: Agriculture and East Alabama

Rep. Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson: (PA-5) in The Bradford Era: Thompson mineral rights legislation approved

Rep. Jackie Walorski (IN-2) in The Elkhart Truth: End the welfare cliff to stop the cycle of poverty


House Highlights
On Tuesday, the House passed H.R. 5053, Preventing IRS Abuse and Protecting Free Speech Act, which would amend the Internal Revenue Code to limit the information that a tax-exempt organization must report about its donors on its annual information return. The bill would limit the Secretary of the Treasury from requiring the name, address, or other identifying information of any contributor regardless of the nature or size of the contribution with two exceptions. The Secretary may still require the information relating to prohibited tax shelter transactions and for contributions of $5,000 or more by officers, directors, or certain highly-paid employees of the organization.

On Thursday the House passed, H.R. 5471, the Countering Terrorist Radicalization Act, which would direct the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to take certain steps to combat terrorist recruitment in the United States. Specifically, the legislation combines three bills that previously passed the House this Congress including: H.R. 4401, the Amplifying Local Efforts to Root out Terror, or ALERT, Act (Rep. Loudermilk); H.R. 4820, the Combating Terrorist Recruitment Act (Rep. Fleischmann); and H.R. 4407, the Counterterrorism Advisory Board Act (Rep. Katko).

The House also passed H.R. 5293, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, which would provide $575.8 billion in total discretionary budget authority for the Department of Defense for fiscal year (FY) 2017.


Photo Booth
This week's House Agriculture Committee member photo highlights.

Rep. Glenn 'GT' Thompson (PA-5) joins volunteers and workers for the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy in replanting community gardens in State College. 
 
For this week's #TBT, Rep. Bob Gibbs (OH-7) takes us back to August 2013 when he threw the first pitch at the Reds home gave vs. the Milwaukee Brewers. 
 
Rep. Ralph Abraham (LA-5) meets with the Louisiana Army National Guard's 528th Engineer Battalion. 




 
House Committee on Agriculture
1301 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

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