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, 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 »
Washington, D.C. - Today, Rep. Austin Scott (GA-8), Chairman of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Commodity Exchanges, Energy, and Credit, held a hearing to review the G20 swap data reporting goals. Members heard from a panel of witnesses who shared the progress being made toward meeting the reporting and transparency goals set forth by the Group of Twenty (G20) enacted in the Dodd-Frank Wall ... Read more »
Remarks as prepared: Good Morning. I want to start today by thanking you for joining the Commodity Exchanges, Energy, and Credit Subcommittee for our first meeting of 2016. As many of you may remember, the full House Committee on Agriculture held a hearing last July on the implementation of Dodd Frank over the five years since it was passed. That hearing highlighted some of the remaining challenge... Read more »
Remarks as prepared for delivery: I am pleased that Secretary Vilsack could join us for this annual hearing to assess the economic conditions in farm country. Thank you for joining us, Mr. Secretary. In assessing the situation, I think it is fair to say that America’s farmers and ranchers are falling on some very hard times right now. Worse yet, I don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. To q... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - Today, the House Agriculture Committee held a hearing to review the 2016 agenda for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Members raised many concerns with CFTC Chairman Timothy Massad, including the importance of strong futures and derivatives markets for end-users, reforms to Dodd-Frank, the Reg AT rule and its potential impact on smaller market participants, and th... Read more »
Remarks as prepared for delivery: Good morning and welcome to the Agriculture Committee’s Hearing to Review the 2016 Agenda for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Today’s hearing is held against a bleak backdrop for many commodity producers, especially those in farm country. The past two years have seen a dramatic fall in commodity prices, across the board, creating significant operational ... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - Today, House Agriculture Committee Chairman K. Michael Conaway (R-TX) issued the following statement upon the unveiling of the fiscal year 2016 Omnibus Appropriations bill. “This responsible funding bill is a win for rural America, and I commend Chairman Hal Rogers and House leadership for including many top priorities of farmers and ranchers. I encourage all of my colleagues, e... Read more »
