Today, House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Angie Craig (MN-02) delivered the following floor speech as the House debated the Republicans’ so-called “skinny” farm bill on the floor.
[As prepared for delivery.]
Thank you, M. Speaker. I rise in opposition to this bill, and I yield to myself such time as I may consume.
At kitchen tables across the country, millions of Americans – seniors, working parents and farmers – are wondering how they are going to pay the bills or not lose money this planting season.
From tariffs that have cost our farmers’ markets, to a war that has increased the cost of fertilizer and diesel, farmers are struggling to hold onto that 3rd or 4th generation farm.
The so-called “skinny” farm bill in front of us today does nothing to stop these losses or to help offset the $54 billion in losses farmers have had to absorb. Worst yet, it doesn’t fix any of the underlying policy choices by Republicans and this administration that caused the problems in the first place.
It turns a blind eye to the farmers calling for emergency economic assistance so they can afford to keep planting. It locks in the $187 billion cut to food assistance that Republicans made in their Big Ugly Bill – putting more pressure on struggling Americans at a time when the cost of groceries and healthcare continues to grow.
That’s what the farm bill doesn’t do: it doesn’t lower costs, it doesn’t help save one family farm from bankruptcy – which is up nearly 50% since this administration took office.
So, what does this so-called farm bill attempt to do? Protect the world’s largest pesticide companies from lawsuits, cut farm conservation programs by $1 billion and overturn the will of voters in states nationwide that set specific animal welfare and food standards for themselves.
Putting the harmful policies aside, the political calculos on this should be easy.
Do we want to lower costs for farmers and working people – or do we want to protect pesticide companies and lock in cuts to food assistance even when grocery prices are spiking?
Do we want to pass a farm bill that delivers for farmers on the verge of bankruptcy and families going hungry? Or do we want to sit on our hands and then make excuses?
I urge my colleagues to reject this version of the farm bill and force Republicans back to the table to negotiate a true bipartisan bill that prioritizes the cost-of-living crisis in this country, and I reserve the balance of my time.
