Today, House Agriculture Committee Chairman K. Michael Conaway (R-TX) issued the following statement in regard to an announcement today by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) that the U.S. will request a Dispute Settlement Panel against China concerning that nation’s $100 billion in excess subsidies—in a single year—for corn, rice, and wheat. USTR also announced that the U.S. will pursue enforcement action against China for its illegal Tariff Rate Quota administration which has ha...
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Remarks as prepared for delivery: The United States has a long and complicated relationship with our neighbor to the south. While our close proximity to Cuba makes the island nation a natural trading partner, the stranglehold the Castro regime has had on Cuba has long prevented normalized relations between our two countries. That stranglehold resulted in the United States imposing an embargo on trade with Cuba that has been in place in various forms for almost 60 years. In 2000, the Trade Sancti...
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Today, the House Agriculture Committee held a hearing to examine the potential for expanded agricultural trade between the United States and Cuba. Much of the conversation centered on the Cuba Agricultural Exports Act (H.R. 3687) and the potential for removing financing restrictions that have limited agricultural exports to Cuba. “The history between the U.S. and Cuba is long and complicated, with the Castro regime’s stranglehold on the island nation long preventing normalized relations between ...
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Today, House Agriculture Committee Chairman K. Michael Conaway (R-TX) joined U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and a bipartisan group of Members of Congress in announcing the U.S. has launched a new trade enforcement action against China at the World Trade Organization (WTO) as a result of China’s excessive government support for corn, rice, and wheat production. Chairman Conaway convened two full committee hearings last year (June and October) ...
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House Agriculture Committee Chairman K. Michael Conaway (R-TX) issued the following statement after the Turkish government announced a three percent duty on all U.S. cotton fiber imports into Turkey. This action follows the country’s unfounded investigation into whether U.S. cotton was dumped into Turkey, an allegation the National Cotton Council has challenged, saying it has no merit. “American cotton growers remain under assault, and the problems just keep coming. Just last week, China announc...
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Today, House Agriculture Committee Chairman K. Michael Conaway (R-TX) delivered remarks on the House floor in favor of H.R. 1567, the Global Food Security Act of 2016. Watch the video and view the official remarks below. Remarks as prepared for delivery: "Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1567, the Global Food Security Act of 2016. "With the world population rapidly increasing—particularly in some of the most impoverished and food insecure regions—it is of critical importance that the...
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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 each area’s purpose and goals, programs administered, and annual budget. Today’s panel of witnesses included USDA offic...
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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 with USDA last fall. By setting aside two days each year to focus on examining each of USDA’s seven mission areas and th...
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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 laws that this committee works to enact. We welcome each of you here today. I know that preparing for ...
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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 quantify what I am talking about, consider these figures: The 2-year drop in net farm income that occ...
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