Agriculture
America depends on our farms for food, clothing, and thousands of jobs. They are small family businesses that make up the economic and cultural backbone of Maryland’s First Congressional District. As a Senator in the Maryland General Assembly, I helped promote and protect Maryland agriculture and poultry. I continue to do the same in the halls of Congress.
Farmers must be protected from unnecessary and harmful federal regulations that could hurt their ability to grow and create jobs. The estate tax must be eliminated because families should be able to pass farms down to the next generation without penalty. Private property rights have to be upheld – farmers should not be subjected to harmful land use laws that devalue their property and make it more difficult to do business.
More on Agriculture
WASHINGTON, DC: On July 19, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 6147, the Department of the Interior, Environment, Financial Services, and General Government Appropriations Act for 2019. Included in this legislation is an amendment to authorize the planting of genetically-modified (GMO) seed on National Wildlife Refuge land. Congressman Andy Harris, M.D. (MD-01) issued the following statement in support of this amendment:
WASHINGTON, DC: On June 21, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 2, the Agriculture and Nutrition Act (commonly known as the farm bill). Congressman Andy Harris, M.D. (MD-01) released the following statement in support of the bill’s passage:
Olivia Rubio does the hard, tedious work of extracting crab meat on Hooper's Island on Maryland's Eastern Shore.
Hooper's Island is part of chain of three sparsely populated islands in the Chesapeake Bay. After crossing a single bridge, the main road winds through picturesque watermen's villages and unpopulated areas. Hooper's is a center for seafood catching and processing.
HOOPERS ISLAND, Md. —
There is crab meat crisis on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, even though crabs are in good supply this season.
It's not a lack of crabs, but of crab pickers.
WASHINGTON, DC: Congressman Andy Harris, M.D. (MD-01), alongside Congressmen Jack Bergman (MI-01), Steve Chabot (OH-01), and William Keating (MA-09), led a bipartisan letter, signed by 89 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, supporting the release of additional H-2B visas in order to meet the needs of small seasonal businesses in Maryland’s First Congressional District and across the country. The Fiscal Year 2018 cap of 66,000 H-2B visas was filled on January 1, 2018, leaving many businesses unable to obtain the temporary seasonal labor they need.
WASHINGTON, DC: The United States Congress included in the 2018 Omnibus bill a renewed exemption for farmers from the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). CERCLA requires private entities and individuals to report instances of releasing hazardous substances to the EPA, and the exemption for farmers was challenged in court in 2017. Congressman Andy Harris, M.D.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Farmers raising chickens all around Delmarva breathed a sigh of relief after Congress passed, and President Donald Trump signed, an omnibus spending bill that restores an exemption for farmers from burdensome regulations under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, or CERCLA. This development followed testimony on Capitol Hill by Delmarva Poultry Industry, Inc. executive director Bill Satterfield in favor of standalone legislation restoring the farm exemption from CERCLA reporting.
USDA Rural Development is now accepting applications for the 2018 Rural Business Development Grant Program. The program funds ‘rural business enterprise projects’ to benefit specific small and/or emerging businesses in rural areas and ‘rural business opportunity projects’ to promote sustainable economic development in rural communities.
Eligible applicants include rural public entities such as non-profit corporations, municipalities, state agencies, institutions of higher education, and more.
This week, the U.S. Small Business Administration announced that federal Economic Injury Disaster Loans are available to small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small businesses engaged in aquaculture, and most private nonprofit organizations located in Caroline, Dorchester, Wicomico and Worcester Counties as a result of the excessive rain between July 28 and Sept. 2, 2017.
On May 24, 2017, the House Appropriations Agriculture Subcommittee held a hearing on the FY2018 budget for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Subcommittee Chairman Robert Aderholt presides.
Witnesses:Dr. Robert Johansson, Chief Economist, Department of Agriculture; The Honorable Sonny Perdue, Secretary, Department of Agriculture; Michael Young, Budget Officer, Department of Agriculture