The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“THE STRENGTH OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURE” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Agriculture was published in the in the House of Representatives section section on pages H4064-H4066 on March 31.
The Department is primarily focused on food nutrition, with assistance programs making up 80 percent of its budget. Downsizing the Federal Government, a project aimed at lowering taxes and boosting federal efficiency, said the Department implements too many regulations and restrictions and impedes the economy.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
THE STRENGTH OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 4, 2021, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Mann) for 30 minutes.
General Leave
Mr. MANN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their marks and submit extraneous material on this Special Order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Kansas?
There was no objection.
Mr. MANN. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to host this Special Order during National Agriculture Month on the strength of American agriculture. I am inspired by the American farmers, ranchers, and agricultural producers who feed, fuel, and clothe not only this country but the entire world.
I grew up on a farm south of Quinter, Kansas, that my parents and brother still operate. Growing up there meant that I spent thousands of hours on a tractor working in fields and on horseback doctoring sick cattle in the family feed yard. Those hours turned into love of country and lessons about the values of hard work, creativity, flexibility, and putting others before ourselves.
My district, the Big First of Kansas, is home to more than 60,000 farms where farmers, ranchers, feedlot managers, ethanol producers, ag lenders, and agribusiness owners ensure that America remains the most food-secure country in the world.
As Congress becomes increasingly urban, the distance from farm to fork has never been greater, and since America's national security depends in large part on our food security, we need strong voices for agriculture in this Congress, which is why I am honored to serve on the House Agriculture Committee and to host this Special Order tonight.
If Congress is going to legislate effectively on matters relating to agriculture, Congress must first understand the agricultural perspective in America. There is something about being in the middle of the country where farmers pray for rain, parents drive 30 miles both ways just to take their kids to school, and communities shrink and grow with oil and gas prices that gives you a greater perspective.
House Agriculture Committee Republican leader GT Thompson and I just returned from a trip to my district. While there, we saw an American heartland infused with both the innovative energy that creates new ideas and the love of tradition that respects tried-and-true methods. We saw the USDA National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility that will take American agriculture into the future, and we met with the family who owns and operates Brookover Feed Yards, one of the first feedlots in Kansas. We also saw oil production, ag lending, ethanol production, wheat innovation, and the next generation of leaders in food and agriculture at Kansas State University.
I look forward to celebrating the culmination of National Agriculture Month with my colleagues here tonight as we celebrate the force, passion, and strength of American agriculture.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Thompson), a descendant of dairy farmers, a champion of rural development, my friend who joined me just last week on an agriculture tour of my district in Kansas, and the Republican leader of the House Agriculture Committee.
Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Mann for yielding and for hosting this Special Order tonight on an industry that I believe is the most important industry in America. It is the industry that impacts and touches the lives of American families more times in a given day than any other. It is not just the food. It is the fiber; it is the building materials; it is the energy resources; it is the economy.
I am honored to be here. I am proud to be the Republican leader of the House Agriculture Committee, where we celebrate the contributions of American farmers, ranchers, producers, and foresters all year long.
Farm country is no stranger to struggle, and the past couple of years have been a punch to the gut. Between a global pandemic, historic fires and floods, wind events, and a President who is waging a never-ending war on agriculture, times have been particularly tough.
The supply chain crisis paired with skyrocketing inflation is kicking our farm families while they are down--folks who buy retail, sell wholesale, and pay shipping each way; the men and women who work around the clock to provide us with a safe and reliable food supply.
But rural America is tough; rural America is resilient; and rural America is the backbone of this Nation.
I am grateful to Congressman Mann for being on our farm team, as well as all the other agriculture advocates who will be speaking this evening.
Before I go, I specifically recognize Pennsylvania's contribution to agriculture, which is the Commonwealth's number one industry. One out of every seven jobs is directly or indirectly related to agriculture: 59,000 farms; 280,500 direct jobs; and more than $135 billion in revenue, or about 18 percent of Pennsylvania's economy. Agriculture's impact in the Keystone State is undeniable.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the families, the men and women who work 24/7, 365 days a year to feed, to clothe, and to fuel this great Nation. Once again, thanks to Congressman Mann for leading this important Special Order.
Mr. MANN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Thompson for being here tonight and sharing with us thoughts about Pennsylvania agriculture. It is very important to this country.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Newhouse), who is a third-generation family farmer and good friend. I always appreciate his perspectives of Washington State agriculture and what he brings to this body.
Mr. NEWHOUSE. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Mann for his leadership and also for hosting us tonight on this special occasion to talk about American agriculture.
I am truly proud to stand with my colleagues to talk about something that affects and impacts every single person not only in this room but listening tonight: the American agriculture industry.
In central Washington, where I am from, I know our industry is made up of honest, hardworking, freedom-loving Americans that provide food and fiber for this Nation. My community is home to some of the most dedicated, innovative agricultural producers in the entire country.
Washington farmers and ranchers produce over 300 different commodities, including high-quality hay, wheat, beef, dairy, wine grapes, hops--which I raise--potatoes, cherries, mint, and, of course, Washington's iconic apples.
Blessed with the conditions to produce such a diverse range of crops, central Washington is proud to share its natural abundance to help feed the country and feed the world. Those of us who live there have a deep appreciation for our Nation's farmers and recognize how important it is that we have a strong domestic agricultural sector.
But lately, unfortunately, the President and his far-left Democrats are so focused on radically altering the country with their trillion-
dollar spending proposals, they are blind to the impacts their own policies are already having on Americans across the country. The cost of living is at a 40-year high and still going up. Now, they are looking to raise taxes again on small businesses, on family farms.
As a lifetime farmer and former director of the Department of Agriculture for the State of Washington and current chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus, I understand the vested interests that we all share in supporting our agricultural producers. I am proud to join my House Republican colleagues in advocating against burdensome regulations that impact rural communities and for real solutions, not just empty promises, to help our farmers and our ranchers, our farmworkers, and all Americans, who deserve a strong food supply chain.
I introduced the first serious agricultural labor reform bill to pass the House in over 30 years, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, to ensure that those who wish to come to our country, abide by our laws, and contribute to our farms, ranches, and local communities are able to do so.
I, along with my Republican colleagues, am leading efforts to stop our foreign adversaries, such as Communist China, from gobbling up American farmland and taking control of our food supply chain.
I am protecting our hydroelectric dams in the Northwest that provide irrigation water, baseload power for central Washington and beyond, and serve as a sustainable and efficient way to transport our Nation's crops. The Columbia River barges carry more than 50 percent of U.S. wheat destined for export, and barging on the Columbia and Snake Rivers system keeps--get this--700,000 semitrucks off the roads and their emissions out of the air each and every year.
I am leading the entire Congressional Western Caucus in fighting against this administration's efforts to revive the single-most overreaching Federal regulatory action in history. It is called the waters of the United States rule, or the WOTUS rule. This dangerous policy empowers Federal bureaucrats to place every single body of water--every ditch, every puddle, every stream--under Federal regulation. As a result, the livelihoods of our farmers and rural communities across the Nation--not just in Washington; all over the country--are at stake.
While it is clear to me, just as I know it is clear to my constituents, President Biden and Democrats are failing to display the leadership America needs and deserves, there is a silver lining here. American agriculture is strong. We have overcome far worse, and we will not let these radical policies hold us back from the job of feeding this Nation.
I call on the administration to take a good long look at how their policies are harming us here in central Washington and in rural communities across the country and take immediate steps to reverse them. We deserve far better.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Mann for helping recognize the importance of American agriculture, and I appreciate his leadership.
{time} 1945
Mr. MANN. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman. His leadership in agriculture, his leadership for the Western Caucus are very, very important, and I thank him for joining us tonight.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Keller), a staunch defender of farmers in his district and a fellow Congressional FFA Caucus member.
Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Mann for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, as National Agriculture Month comes to a close, I am reminded of a speech Paul Harvey delivered to the FFA in 1978. No truer words have ever been spoken about America's farmers.
Listening to the speech brings back memories of the days spent working with my stepdad on his farm. This is a tribute, again, to America's farmers, the work they do. And when I read this speech, it reminds me, I can see my stepdad those days working. But it is a tribute to all of the farmers in our great country.
So here are a few of the excerpts that I really like from this speech, and it goes like this.
It begins:
And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise, and said, ``I need a caretaker.''
So God made a farmer.
God said, I need somebody who can shape an ax handle from a persimmon sprout, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire, who can make a harness out of haywire, feed sacks and shoe scraps. Whose planting time and harvest season will finish his 40-hour week by Tuesday noon, and then pain'n from tractor back, put in another 72 hours.
So God made a farmer.
It had to be somebody who'd plow deep and straight and not cut corners. Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed, and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week's work with a 5-mile drive to church.
Somebody who would bale a family together with the soft, strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh, and then sigh, and then reply, with smiling eyes, when his son says that he wants to spend his life doing what dad does.
So God made a farmer.
Thank you to America's farmers. This is a tribute to the work that you do every day on behalf of not just the United States, but our world.
Mr. MANN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for joining us tonight. And as you were reading that, I thought about my family, my grandparents and many producers all over America that that describes. Thank you very much for sharing that.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Miller), who runs a grain and livestock farm with her husband and who has raised her children to be the 4th generation of farmers on her family farm in Illinois.
Mrs. MILLER of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Mann for hosting this Special Order.
Mr. Speaker, at the conclusion of National Agriculture Month, I would like to share how strongly I believe in the family farm as part of the American way of life. It has truly been a blessing to have our sons--
who are the 4th generation--and their children--the 5th generation--
working our land.
I am proud to be an Illinois farmer and to represent the farmers' needs in Congress and on the Ag Committee. If Americans are hungry, really, what else matters?
The agriculture industry keeps Americans and the world fed, fueled, and clothed. I am so thankful for the work that the ag industry does and for their contributions to the GDP and Illinois and across our Nation.
America is on a dangerous path, losing our self-sufficiency in farming, which is why I introduced a bill in Congress to prevent China from buying up our farmland. Biden and the Democrats continue to push policies that promote Chinese-made batteries and solar panels instead of American biofuels.
National Agriculture Month is a great time to thank our farmers, ranchers, and agriculture professionals for their tireless work.
Mr. MANN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Illinois for joining us tonight.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Valadao), who represents our Nation's largest dairy district. He and his family operate a dairy farm; lives at the dairy.
Mr. VALADAO. Mr. Speaker, this is a great honor to be able to speak about the great people that feed our country.
Mr. Speaker, I am proud to represent the farmers that feed the world. With less than 1 percent of our Nation's farmland, the Central Valley supplies a quarter of our Nation's food. Our well-deserved reputation as America's breadbasket comes from the help of nature and a whole lot of hard work and skill from our farmers, ranchers, and producers. But without water, we cannot grow our Nation's food at all.
Our Central Valley farming community has endured drought conditions and low water allocations for years. At a time when even the President is warning about global food shortages, we need to be supporting our agriculture producers here at home. That includes making sure that the Central Valley has the water they need to continue providing food for the world. We must fix complex and contradictory laws, court decisions, and regulations, and improve water storage infrastructure to bring more water to the Valley.
The livelihoods of my constituents and our global food supply depend on it.
Mr. MANN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for joining us tonight.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Ellzey), the pride of Levelland, Texas, who farmed and ranched in the Texas Panhandle before he came to Congress.
Mr. ELLZEY. Mr. Speaker, I come before the House of Representatives to bring attention to National Agriculture Month. And, of course, before I begin my prepared remarks, I want to talk about what we see going on in Ukraine and Russia.
Ukraine is the breadbasket of that region. And 30 percent of all of the world's grain, wheat, is produced in that region. And as we talk about this today, and in a few months we are going to be talking about it even more, about how the farms and ranches of the United States feed the entire world.
Over the past couple of years our farmers have faced unprecedented obstacles from COVID, COVID lockdowns, labor shortages, supply chain disruptions, high fuel prices, and record-high fertilizer prices. But as always, they have overcome those challenges, and they have kept Americans and the world fed during a time of great uncertainty.
Each American farmer feeds more than 165 people. Texas leads the Nation in the number of farms and ranches, with 248,416 farms and ranches covering 127 million acres. The ag industry is the pillar of a healthy and prosperous nation. And in the 6th Congressional District of Texas, we have a long history of farming and ranching. We are home to families like the Beeklys, the Patmans, the Buchholzes, the Borns, and the Dineens.
Many of them have earned the title of a ``Texas Century Farm'' or Texas Century Ranch.'' Those titles are only given to families that have served our country as farmers and ranchers for over 100 years. Families who get up before dawn to tend to crops and herd cattle. They are part of over 5,000 farms and ranches in my district.
So if you fed your family today, thank a farmer. Thank a rancher. And in Texas, thank a neighbor.
Mr. MANN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for joining us, and representing Texas in such a legacy of agriculture in a great State.
Mr. Speaker, I thank everyone who spoke today for helping Congress understand an agricultural perspective. As Dwight Eisenhower--who was from my State, from my district--said, Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and you are a thousand miles away from a cornfield. Today, it felt like the Members who spoke on this floor brought the farm a little closer to Capitol Hill, and for that, I thank them.
Congress uses the reauthorization of the farm bill every 5 years to determine the nature of our support for the men and women who feed, fuel, and clothe the world. America's food security is so important because it determines the strength of our national security. We will never be a secure country if we have to rely on other countries to feed ourselves.
Because of the tenacity of the American farmer, we are the most food secure country in the world, and I will do everything in my power to keep it that way.
As Congress determines how we will support farmers, ranchers, and agricultural producers in the 2023 farm bill, I encourage Members to imagine how different their lives would be without healthy American agriculture. From the food on our tables to the fuel in our cars to the fibers in our clothing to the roofs over our head, agriculture is all around us, and we tend to take it for granted.
Well, it isn't granted. It is gifted. Every day American farmers, ranchers, and agricultural producers give us the gift of our quality of life in this country. Our comforts come from the sweat of their brows. The least this Congress can do is support their efforts wholeheartedly with a strong thoughtful 2023 farm bill and related legislation. The future of America depends on it.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________
