Remarks as prepared: Good morning, and welcome to today’s hearing. Over the course of the 114th Congress, the Conservation and Forestry Subcommittee has held a series of hearings to highlight the success of voluntary conservation by our nation’s farmers, ranchers, and foresters. Today’s discussion, “Healing the Bay the Voluntary Way”, takes a more focused approach to this discussion. The Chesapeak... Read more »
Remarks as prepared: Good morning. Each subcommittee has been tasked with highlighting issues within their respective jurisdictions that impact the economic well-being of rural America. Throughout this series of hearings on the farm economy, one of the consistent themes has been that government rules and regulations are overly burdensome and negatively impact the bottom line and long-term success ... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - Today, Rep. Glenn 'GT' Thompson (R-PA), Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry, held a hearing to highlight the impacts of environmental regulation and voluntary conservation solutions. This is the fifth hearing in the Focus on the Farm Economy series, where each of the six subcommittees are tasked with examining the growing press... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - Today, Rep. Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson (PA-5), Chairman of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry, held a hearing to highlight the unique and innovative conservation practices that farmers and ranchers are voluntarily utilizing to conserve and protect natural resources. Members heard from two panels of witnesses including Chief of the Natural Resources Conserva... Read more »
Good afternoon. I would like to welcome everyone to this hearing of the Conservation and Forestry Subcommittee on the topic of utilizing innovation and technology in voluntary conservation. This hearing provides an opportunity to highlight new practices, innovative approaches to using tried and true methods, and advancing technology as it applies to voluntary conservation efforts. We know that vol... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - Today, Rep. Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson (PA-5), Chairman of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry, held a public hearing to review the 2015 fire season and long-term trends of forest fires. Members heard from Forest Service Chief Thomas Tidwell as well as a second panel of affected stakeholders on the many reasons why forest fires are becoming increasingly more... Read more »
Remarks as prepared: Good morning, and welcome to today’s hearing of the Conservation and Forestry subcommittee to review the 2015 fire season and long term trends. This year, Western States, including Alaska, have experienced yet another catastrophic fire season with over 9 million acres burned to date. This continues an alarming trend where the average number of acres burned each year has nearly... Read more »
Remarks as prepared: Thank you, Chairman Conaway for today’s markup. As an original cosponsor, I remain in strong support of the “Resilient Federal Forests Act.” Since the inception of the national forest system in 1905, the fundamental mission of the Forest Service has been to manage our federal forests and grasslands. As a result, the Forest Service has played a critical role in rural America: p... Read more »
Washington, D.C. - Today, Rep. Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson (PA-5), Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee's Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry, held a public hearing to review the implementation of conservation programs included in the Agricultural Act of 2014. The subcommittee heard from two panels of witnesses, including Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Chief Jason Weller and Fa... Read more »
Remarks as prepared: Good morning. Welcome to today’s hearing to review the implementation of conservation programs in the Agricultural Act of 2014. Since 1985, Congress created over 20 farm bill conservation programs to address specific natural resource concerns. With this piecemeal approach over the past 30 years, we were left with programs that started as regional initiatives and were duplicati... Read more »
