▶ 0:27:48get started. Good morning. The subcommittee will come to order. I want to welcome everyone to the subcommittee markup of the FY26 Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill. I'm pleased to be joined by our subcommittee ranking member, Mr. Bishop, full committee chairman Cole, ranking member Deloro, and all the members of the subcommittee.
▶ 0:28:12For fiscal year 2026, the subcommittee's discretionary allocation for the USDA, the FDA, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is 25.5 billion, a 1.1 billion or 4.2% decrease from FY25 enacted levels. In a setting of$2 trillion deficits, that modest constraint is necessary.
▶ 0:28:33This legislation reflects a clear conservative commitment to fiscal responsibility while ensuring that America's farmers, ranchers, and rural communities remain a top priority and that all Americans have access to a safe food and drug supply. At the same time, this legislation turns the page on the disastrous four years of the Biden administration by rooting out wasteful spending, reducing the federal bureaucracy, and incorporating efficiencies that Doge has identified.
▶ 0:29:01This bill sets USDA on a responsible and sustainable spending path that will make the department and our nation stronger. Under the Biden administration, core USDA services suffered. This includes the failure to effectively deliver disaster aid to farmers, delays in administering basic grant programs, and catastrophic food shortages in tribal and elderly communities resulting from poor decisionmaking and a lack of interest by top USDA leadership.
▶ 0:29:30The previous administration instead focused its efforts on implementing unconstitutional loan forgiveness programs, incorporating the woke agenda into grants and programs across USDA, writing regulations that made it harder for producers to earn a living, and pushing billions of unauthorized funds out the door for climate change projects. The Biden administration did much of this while using so-called inflation reduction act and leftover COVID era funds.
▶ 0:29:58These funds, which were meant to be one-time emergency measures, were used by the prior administration to hire new permanent staff and expand the woke federal bureaucracy. Secretary Vilsac was betting, of course, that no one would subsequently shrink that bureaucracy, even when those one-time funds were gone. I applaud Secretary Rollins for putting an end to this madness.
▶ 0:30:21It's long overdue that COVID era programs end and returning the workforce to precoid levels is just common sense. It's far better to have fewer employees who actually show up to work full-time versus a sprawling remote workforce that failed time and again to perform basic I'd like to highlight a few areas where this legislation supports the administration's efforts to refocus the department on its core mission by prioritizing essential functions in a fiscally responsible
▶ 0:30:51manner. This bill provides 1.15 billion for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, APHUS, to support the department's effort to protect our producers from high path aven influenza, new world screworm, and other foreign plant and animal diseases.
▶ 0:31:08The legislation continues to invest in the delivery of farm programs, disaster assistance, and crop insurance to farmers by prioritizing funding for farmer-f facing functions, including the Farm Service Agency and the Risk Management Agency. The bill provides $7.6 billion for WIC, the same level as fiscal year 2025, and rescends a hund00 million from significant carryover balances from that level of funding.
▶ 0:31:35It also makes a 10% reduction in the hugely inflated with cash value voucher to begin a reset to precoid levels. The bill makes important investments in critical agricultural research that will keep our producers on the cutting edge of technology and production practices.
▶ 0:31:54We maintain funding for USDA's flagship competitive grant program, the agricultural and food uh research initiative and protect capacity funding for our land grant universities to ensure our farmers and a workforce remains competitive with This legislation continues to fund rural development programs, including critical infrastructure investments in water and wastewater systems, broadband, and additional investments in certain rural housing programs.
▶ 0:32:24The bill includes 90 million for Reconnect to complement existing funds to deploy broadband to the most underserved rural areas. For the Food and Drug Administration, the bill provides $3.2 2 billion in direct appropriations and with increased user fees, FDA has a total budget of $6.8 billion to enable the agency to keep food, drugs, and medical devices safe effective. The bill provides $900 million for the food for peace program.
▶ 0:32:54As the state program, as the state department undergoes reorganization, we have worked with the administration on language in this bill to transfer the administration of food for peace from the State Department back to USDA where it belongs. On the regulatory and policy fronts, this legislation withdraws harmful Biden era costly regulations that attempt to dictate how poultry and livestock producers raise and market their animals.
▶ 0:33:20It continues to build on efforts to prevent the purchase of farmland by China and our foreign adversaries by having the Secretary of Agriculture serve on CPHAS, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States for agricultural This bill also closes the hemp loophole from the 2018 Farm Bill that has resulted in the proliferation of intoxicating canabonoid products, including Delta 8 and hemp flour being sold online and in gas stations nationwide under the false guise
▶ 0:33:51of being quote USDA approved. As many states have stepped in to curb these dangerous products from reaching consumers, particularly children, it's time for Congress to act to close this loophole while protecting the legitimate industrial hemp industry. The bill also prioritized the health and nutritional needs of SNAP recipients by codifying USDA's authority to grant waiverss to states to restrict unhealthy food purchases with SNAP benefits.
▶ 0:34:19We have witnessed both red and blue states submitting waiver proposals to USDA that will help make America healthy again by ensuring taxpayer funded SNAP benefits are being used to purchase healthy foods. In a setting of increased overweight, obesity, diabetes, and hypertension in our SNAP food recipients, this just makes sense. The bill also directs the secretary conduct a feasibility study of a bi-American requirement in SNAP.
▶ 0:34:47American producers grow and raise all the food we need for healthy diets. This could be a tremendous boost to American farmers and ranchers if SNAP dollars are only used to purchase American grown and Americanmade products. This buyAmerican program can help expand our specialty crop programs and help mitigate our growing agricultural trade deficit. Times have changed at the Department of Agriculture. This bill puts the disastrous policies of the Biden administration behind us.
▶ 0:35:17Under President Trump and Secretary Rollins leadership, every taxpayer dollar will be spent in the pursuit of putting American farmers and ranchers first. This bill follows their example in providing the support and resources American farmers deserve while reducing our burgeoning federal deficit. As I've said before, we are not appropriating a monopoly money. It's hard-earned taxpayer dollars and sometimes tough decisions have to be made.
▶ 0:35:45In an era of unrelenting $2 trillion deficits, fiscal restraint has to start and it has to start now. This bill reflects that sobering reality. In conclusion, I want to thank the staff on the subcommittee and note that the subcommittee received nearly 8,000 member requests touching every agency under our jurisdiction.
▶ 0:36:07We have attempted to address both Republican and Democrat member requests within the available budget through community project funding, programmatic funding, and bill and report language. I look forward to working with all of you as the bill moves forward, and I ask for your support for this legislation. Now, I'll recognize the ranking member of the subcommittee, Mr. Bishop, for his opening remarks.
▶ 0:36:30Thank you, Chairman Harris, and good My colleagues have heard me say this before and I'll say it again. I am always working to ensure that American produces the highest quality, the most affordable, most abundant food and fiber uh and medicine. Unfortunately, uh this bill is not up to the task.
▶ 0:36:55While our country continues to grow, our support for women, infants, and children continues to shrink. This bill follows the administration's lead and it cuts $und00 million in wick funds below last year, hurting our most vulnerable as the cost of food continues to rise. The cost of housing continues to rise across the country and rural communities are not exempt.
▶ 0:37:20Yet, this bill cuts $1.8 billion dollar in rural housing programs, hurting rural America. Affordable housing is a cornerstone of every American's quality of life and it's a big part of the American dream. Yet, this bill makes it harder for Americans to achieve that dream.
▶ 0:37:41Talking about being able to provide for and afford basic needs, this bill cuts $44 million in grants for water and waste projects. These projects often have large capital costs and small towns in rural America do not have the rateayer base to cover those costs.
▶ 0:38:02Without these federal grants, they are put between a rock and a hard place to pay for the project by either slapping residents with huge utility bills or cutting other essential services like law enforcement or garbage collection or paving roads. We already know there's a digital divide when it comes to rural communities and access to affordable broadband internet.
▶ 0:38:27Yet, this bill not only fails to increase the investments in rural broadband necessary to close the gap, but it also slashes grants for distant learning uh tele medicine and other broadband projects in rural communities. I continue to hear from my constituents about staffing shortages, whether it's at the Farm Service Agency or the Natural Resources Conservation Services or at rural development.
▶ 0:38:56And I know they are not alone. This bill makes a 9% $19 million cut to FSA, a $46 million, 13% cut to rural development staffing at a time when farmers are already showing up to county offices that are understaffed or totally empty as a result of the mass exodus of the experienced personnel who help farmers with everything from disaster relief to home loans to
▶ 0:39:26grants to improve their farm operations. ations. This bill slashes funding for NRCS conservation operations by 5%. This is a program that helps American farmers, ranchers, and other private land owners to conserve and protect their land.
▶ 0:39:46It completely eliminates the urban agriculture and innovative production program which undermines our ability to grow more food close to the people who consume it across America. We continue to see a retreat from America's leadership on the world stage.
▶ 0:40:05And part of that is the demolition of the Food for Peace program, cutting funding by $788 million, which would make it the lowest funding level for the program since 2002. Meanwhile, the administration continues to illegally dismantle USA ID and keep food from reaching those in need around the world.
▶ 0:40:31I want to remind my colleagues that this eliminates an important market for America's agriculture producers and it undermines a powerful part of our diplomatic and economic arsenal.
▶ 0:40:46The bill also cuts the Commodity Futures Trading Commission by $30 million, which will undermine their ability to go after cyber criminals and secure the global derivative markets on which American producers rely. Americans are already concerned about the role that sound science will play in our public health and our safety policy.
▶ 0:41:12Uh, we need to embrace transparency and the FDA should be able to effectively and quickly share information. It needs the resources to do this, but the bill before us today cuts over $320 million from the FDA.
▶ 0:41:33Finally, I am extremely concerned about language in the report that directs states to share personally identifiable information of those who use SNAP with USDA. We cannot compromise people's privacy simply because they participate in this program.
▶ 0:41:53This bill increases costs for rural America by cutting crucial investments in housing, water, and energy programs that help families and small businesses and rural communities save money and to thrive. It retreats from nutrition programs that help the most vulnerable afford healthy food and at the same time engage America's egg producers in our country's effort to fight hunger.
▶ 0:42:20In its current form, I cannot support the bill, but I'm hopeful that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will put aside partisanship and come together to provide adequate resources for all the stakeholders of USDA, our rural communities, uh, and our federal, uh, administration. And I I would love for us to produce a bill that works for the American people.
▶ 0:42:51I cannot support this bill in its current form and I urge us to do better. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I yield back. Thank you, Mr. Bishop. Now, I'll turn to the distinguished chairman of the committee, Mr. Cole, for any remarks that he might have. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I did not bring prepared remarks. We're going to have the opportunity to do that soon enough. But I do want to make a couple of points if I may. First of all, I want to commend you. I want to commend you and this committee for making some tough decisions.
▶ 0:43:20And these are decisions that need to be made. We do have, as you mentioned in your opening remarks, a $2 trillion a year deficit. You've made thoughtful and balanced uh decisions here that'll save the American taxpayers money.
▶ 0:43:36And I think you've taken the dollars that you have and stretched them further than than any chairman before you and any subcommittee before you and redirected them as you said in your own remarks, refocused us to the core missions that this subcommittee ought to be funding. Uh and this is an exceptional example of doing just that. Um you know, we talked a lot about the problems, the things that American agriculture doesn't have or rural America needs.
▶ 0:44:03What it doesn't need is another round of crippling inflation, which is what we had from the last administration's extravagant and reckless spending. That was a tax on every single American, particularly brutal uh on producers uh that have very thin operating margins uh in rural America. So, doing our part to make sure that we don't go back and reignite the Biden inflation, the worst in 40 years, uh is extraordinarily important.
▶ 0:44:29I think you kept that goal in mind as you fashioned this this bill. Uh again, I'm particularly pleased at the the balance and the use of resources here and the constant uh uh understanding that we're really not spending money, we're increasing debt. That's what's going on uh in all these processes. Uh we're trying to turn that around.
▶ 0:44:53We made major progress I think in doing that on the mandatory side uh recently and I think this committee has taken seriously its charge to try and do it thoughtfully, carefully uh and and putting investments where they need to be. So again, I know these are not easy decisions, but I think they're the right decisions and I really want to thank the uh the members of this subcommittee for stepping up and doing that.
▶ 0:45:17Um, you know, despite the quote unquote litany of cuts, as I remember from your opening remarks, all the cuts were 4.1%. Bill, 4.1%. This is hardly a crippling uh effort. It's actually a thoughtful effort. Uh, and it's an effort that combined with the efforts of other subcommittees to try and re in the reckless spending that they inherited, uh, will help us dampen inflation and banish that plague.
▶ 0:45:46You know, it's interesting to me that see um you know, we've seen a lot of our friends on the other side of the aisle talking about inflation. They forget to mention the last inflation report was the lowest in four years. Uh and partly that's decisions that have been made by the administration. Partly it's just, you know, the hard work again of Americans that that always manage way managed to find a way to do more with less. That's exactly what you've done in this particular case on this subcommittee. Mr.
▶ 0:46:16Chairman, and I want to thank you for that. And I look forward to the full debate. I also look forward because again there are a lot of common interests here as my friend the ranking member of the subcommittee noted and uh generally we can find a way to get together and perhaps we can do that yet again. It's a long process as I mentioned uh in an earlier subcommittee hearing uh today. Uh I I will promise everybody here one thing. This bill will look different at the end of the process than it does today.
▶ 0:46:46Whatever happens, you may like it, you may not, but this is the beginning of a process, but this is a good place to start. And I think this is an exceptionally positive beginning. And again, I want to thank you as the chairman. And I want to thank the subcommittee members for making good decision, thoughtful decisions, uh, and moving us in the right direction. With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back. Thank you, Mr. Cole. I'll now recognize the ranking member of the full committee, Miss Deloro, for any remarks she may have. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for yielding.
▶ 0:47:15Uh, we are holding this markup in a completely unprecedented time with Congress's authority and this committee's relevance being challenged by a lawless administration. If it is true that there are Democrats, that there are Republicans, and there are appropriators, then now is the time for appropriators to stand up and preserve our constitutional authority over the power of the purse, so written in the United States Constitution
▶ 0:47:45in Article One. Since taking office, the Trump administration has illegally stolen funding appropriated by this committee, passed by Democrats and Republicans in the House and in the Senate, signed into law by a president.
▶ 0:48:02And that was for services and programs across the federal government that helped to grow the middle class, protect the working class, support small businesses, and make sure billionaires and mega corporations play by the rules and pay taxes. We are in the middle of a cost of living crisis today that is directly hurting farmers. But the president is not laser focused on the cost of living crisis which he is actually making worse.
▶ 0:48:32He promised to fight for working families but instead put billionaires in charge of the government. They are attacking programs created by Congress that assist farmers, feed hungry people in order to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. $4.5 trillion in tax cuts. These cuts are not just numbers on a page. They are not only felt in Washington DC.
▶ 0:49:02They touch every one of our districts, including my own. Millions of pounds of food grown by American farmers have sat in warehouses are gone to waste because of funding freezes and program cancellations. Over $1 billion dollar for the local food for schools and local food purchase assistance was terminated by the US Department of Agriculture earlier this year.
▶ 0:49:29Meaning, not only did President Trump and Elon Musk determine that feeding our children and stocking our food pantries was not a priority, they decided local farmers who produced the food for these children were no longer a priority either. Connecticut is expected to lose nearly $4 million in funding from these two programs.
▶ 0:49:51$4 million in funding that goes directly to purchasing locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables. People may not have the ability to buy fresh fruits and vegetables. If we cut off the opportunity to do that with their food stamp funds, outrageously hungry people who will no longer have access to nutritious food will suffer.
▶ 0:50:20But this also hurts the farmers who will no longer be able to count on selling their produce for these programs. Recently, Chris, a student at Common Ground High School in my district, reached out for help. Common Ground is an innovative educational, environmental, and community building venture, combining a charter high school, an urban demonstration farm, and a community environmental education center.
▶ 0:50:45Due to the funding freeze, Chris said, essential programs at Common Ground like youth workforce development and community food relief, which help people afford food stamp purchases from local farms, have been shut down. And dozen dozens of student workers have been laid off. Students like Chris are reaching out not just because their own future and education has been threatened, but because they see how their community is hurt by these cuts as well.
▶ 0:51:13The funding freeze is not just killing the crops at Common Ground. It is killing academic futures and new ideas education. Moving to the bill before us, what House Republicans have proposed will take food from the mouths of hungry people in America and around the world. Water infrastructure and housing costs for rural Americans will make it harder for small farmers to make ends meet.
▶ 0:51:39At a time when families around the country are struggling, as I said, with the high cost of living, they live paycheck to paycheck. They have trouble buying food because of grocery prices, which have not come down since day one. They have trouble providing for health care for their families, housing, and so many other essentials.
▶ 0:52:02House Republicans are paying for a billionaire tax cut by cutting the women, infants, and children fruit and vegetable benefit. Imagine. I believe that's a program that should be cut. Fruits and vegetables for vulnerable families are not waste. Forcing people into hunger does not create efficiency.
▶ 0:52:29And despite the lip service Republicans pay to rural Americans, this bill cuts investments in rural America, including grants that help hardworking Americans buy homes in rural areas, programs to help build drinking and wastewater infrastructure in the most disadvantaged rural communities. This bill turns our back on the people around the world who are facing famine. with the lowest funding level for food for peace since 2002.
▶ 0:52:58It pulls the rug out of from under our farmers who provide the food for these hunger programs. This will cause more conflict, jeopardize national security. Food aid is an incredibly important tool to keep Americans safe.
▶ 0:53:14And you when you see the flower bags and you see the food bags coming through and it says USID, that's the power of the United States that will be traded for food aid that comes from China.
▶ 0:53:31Instead of focusing on ways to help lower the cost of living, help farmers and hardworking people, House Republicans are using this bill to eliminate protections from small meat and poultry producers against large corporations that have dominated the market, force small producers out of business, and price gouged consumers. This bill does not support farmers. It does not support workers. It does not support families or hungry people. This bill supports corporations, billionaires.
▶ 0:53:59It guts critical assistance in order to hand them yet another tax, another tax cut, $4.5 trillion. I cannot support this bill, but my hope is, as it always is, to improve a bill to support our farmers, our families, and our communities. Thank you, and I yield back. Thank you, Miss Deloro. At this time, does any other member of the subcommittee wish to be recognized for opening remarks? gentle lady from Maine is recognized for five minutes.
▶ 0:54:33Uh thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you for bringing us together today. I too want to express um my s sincere disappointment about this bill, this bill that we only had the text of yesterday and have had barely time enough to comb through the cuts. I know we'll have more time in our longer hearing next week um to supply youth amendments, but I want to just talk about a few of the highlights that deeply concern me about this bill. Um as we've already discussed, uh this bill cuts funding to farmers.
▶ 0:55:02It's got a $46 million cut from FY25 for conservation programs. These are the very conservation programs we talk about year after year where the demand out exceeds what we have available to us. I have no idea why you would cut that funding. Also, it cuts staffing to unprecedented levels. Once again, we hear about it from our farmers all the time. There are not enough boots on the ground. There are enough people to answer the phone, particularly in local offices at FSA, rural development.
▶ 0:55:30Uh so many of these offices now in my state are down 20 to 25% in personnel. We've lost engineers. We've lost critical staff. Um and these funding cuts and staffing cuts make it go even more um severely into what is an established appropriate level of It takes away money from rural housing. Who amongst us doesn't have a housing shortage in their district? Particularly rural affordable housing? We have this huge challenge. And you're cutting $1.8 billion from rural housing.
▶ 0:55:59Reduces funding for water and waste grants. Yet again, real challenges for our rural communities. Uh this is money that they will have to find a way to spend in their own communities, only increasing the property tax, making it that much more difficult to get by and to pay your bills. Uh it also makes severe cuts to wick. Uh we talked about that earlier. The fact that we are taking away money from mothers, babies, breastfeeding mothers.
▶ 0:56:24Why in the world would we ever uh cut this program and also have a cut to the fruits and vegetable benefits. Um that is going back to prepandemic levels. We all know that fruits and vegetables cost more. We talk about it all the time, the increased cost in food. yet we're going to make it more difficult for people to uh provide their families with what we know is extremely healthy. So this is harming our farmers, our working families, but in particular I'm extremely disappointed in this process.
▶ 0:56:53Uh this is the appropriations committee. We all work so hard to become members of this committee and we all have a real duty to our constituents and to the taxpayers in this country to do due diligence on these bill. Yet, we have yielded our power to the president, to Elon Musk, to Doge, to others who know nothing about what we go through every single year and what goes into these budgets. We have let them write the budgets. We have let them uh make these cuts.
▶ 0:57:20Our subcommittee has only had one hearing, one hearing on an appropriations bill. We had Secretary Rollins on May 7th, days before we even got the president's skinny budget. And we are yet to have the president's full budget request before our committee. We've had no FDA hearing. One of our critical responsibilities is oversight of the FDA. Yet, we have yet to do that. We have had no USDA Office of Inspector General hearing. Oh, guess what? The Inspector General was fired.
▶ 0:57:50The person who provides critical oversight, who comes before our committee every year to tell us things that we desperately need to know, is gone. Gone since January 24th and yet to be replaced. And we don't have any of the spending plans from the CR of FY25. Our job is to know what they did with the money that we gave them last year. We have no idea. Our job is oversight. No, we are all the people who claim we're appropriators. We oversee the the taxpayer. We we make sure it's spent responsibly.
▶ 0:58:19Yet, we know nothing about what they are doing. We have no idea how this administration is spending taxpayer dollars. And don't get me started about what Doge has already done to block funding. I don't know about the rest of you, but I get calls to my office every single day. Many of them from farmers saying, "I got a grant. I haven't received the grant. I need to be reimbursed because I already spent the money. Where is our promise to the farmers to make sure we do that?" There are so many other grants that are still blocked.
▶ 0:58:48grants for healthy foods, grants for conservation funding in our watersheds, grants to get more locally grown food into our schools, one after another. We should be fighting for our farmers and hungry um families in our district. And the last thing I just want to add into here, uh we got a CBO score yesterday about the big beautiful bill that you all voted for. CBO score said it's adding $2.4 trillion to the deficit.
▶ 0:59:11the chair of the subcommittee and the chair of the full committee, people who I work with all the time, continue to say we have to make these cuts because we've got to decrease the deficit. Well, you guys are starting the fire and then pretending you're going to put out the fire by cutting funds from farmers and hungry people. You are increasing the deficit and then you are taking away farmers to pay for it. There's no justification for that. Uh there is no justification for the work we're doing here today. We are not appropriators. We need to do our job. I yield back.
▶ 0:59:43Thank you very much. Anyone else wish to be recognized? Gentle lady from Illinois. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I strongly oppose the fiscal year 26 agriculture, rural development, and FDA appropriations bill that we're considering today. While the Trump administration and my Republican colleagues on this committee like to talk about reducing chronic disease and protecting children's health, their actions speak louder.
▶ 1:00:09With dangerous funding cuts in this bill, they are turning their backs on working families, rural communities, and public health. At a time when tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable death in America and poses a grave threat to American youth with over two million middle and high school students reporting tobacco use in 2024. We should be prioritizing the data-driven public health investments that are proven to work, not undermining FDA's power to regulate big tobacco.
▶ 1:00:40This bill is yet another example of the Trump administration's focus on destroying the tools that help the FDA hold big tobacco accountable to the American people. This bill is so extreme that it even blocks the FDA from finalizing a common sense rule to ensure that tobacco products are not contaminated with foreign substances like glass, fingernails, rocks, dirt, and mold.
▶ 1:01:09If my Republican colleagues cannot even take a stand against cigarettes with fingernails in them, then their position is clear. They are not willing to regulate the president's friends and donors in the tobacco industry, and they are not serious about protecting public So instead of devoting FDA resources to regulating tobacco, this bill proposes to waste agency resources and taxpayer funds on an unnecessary review of
▶ 1:01:40mythopristone. We already have decades of evidence showing that mythopristone is a safe and effective medication that safeguards women's health and lives. Medical experts describe methopristone as among the safest medications being used today. Yet FDA commissioner McCary has recently committed to conducting a review of mythopristone.
▶ 1:02:05And this bill includes report language supporting this wasteful review that is based on fraudulent junk science. So let's be honest about what this bill does. It is not going to make women safer. It is a waste of taxpayer resources and yet another attack from this administration on our bodily autonomy.
▶ 1:02:28Throughout this appropriations process, we have heard so much about using federal dollars wisely, controlling costs, and supporting everyday Americans. Yet another way that this bill fails to deliver on those goals is by flatfunding the WICK program despite rising costs for the mothers and children who rely on it. WICK is one of the most cost effective public health programs that we have.
▶ 1:02:55If my Republican colleagues truly cared about government efficiency, they would invest in programs like WICK, which we know improves health outcomes for families. Instead, this bill does the opposite. It reverses the progress we have made on child nutrition and puts women and kids on waiting lists. That's not efficient. That is irresponsible.
▶ 1:03:20This bill slashes the cash value benefits for fruits and vegetables, cutting access to healthy foods for children during their most critical growth years, while also hurting American farmers. Under this bill, a toddler's fruit and vegetable benefit is lower than it was last year. That's not fiscal discipline. It's nutritional sabotage. You don't balance a budget on the backs of babies.
▶ 1:03:50Let's be clear, this is not saving money long term. When we deny healthy food to pregnant moms and kids, we increase the risk of preterm birth, developmental delays, and chronic illness. That results in more hospital visits, higher Medicaid costs, and worse outcomes for families. WICK needs to be fully funded, not frozen. And the benefits need to reflect the science.
▶ 1:04:19That's what the families that we represent deserve. I urge my colleagues to reject this bill and to work together on a smarter funding plan that genuinely supports American families and protects public health. I yield back. Thank you. Are there any other members who wish to be recognized? Gentle lady from Florida. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Excuse me.
▶ 1:04:44I appreciate the hard work that goes into drafting these bills and want to acknowledge the importance of this subcommittee's jurisdiction, but whether we're talking about food security, public health, clean drinking water, or the livelihoods of America's farmers, this bill touches nearly every community in the country. That's why I find the bill before us today so deeply troubling.
▶ 1:05:05At a time when working families struggle with rising costs from groceries to housing and health care, this bill cuts the very investments that help lower those costs and make everyday life more affordable. It also undercuts farmers, especially small and family-owned farms. By cutting the staff and infrastructure that support Farm Service agency offices, this bill makes it harder for farmers to access the very programs Congress promised them, programs they rely on to manage risk, recover from disasters, and stay in business.
▶ 1:05:36Worse, it eliminates the Biden administration protections designed to shield small meat and poultry producers from anti-competitive practices by giant aggra businesses. That's a gift to corporate monopolies and a gut punch to local producers. When four companies control 85% of the beef market, consumers don't stand a chance. Far from lowering costs, these corporations use their dominance to jack up prices at the checkout while raking in record profits. That's not the free market.
▶ 1:06:04That's price gouging masquerading as efficiency. If we want to sustain family farms and encourage new generations to enter agriculture, we can't keep stacking the deck in favor of corporate consolidation. We should be breaking up the monopolies and restoring competition, not handing these Goliaths another tool to crush their small competitors. And let's talk about hunger both at home and around the world. This bill underfunds the special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants, and children by hundred million compared to last year.
▶ 1:06:34That means less support for the nearly 7 million American women and children who count on it. Most egregiously, it cuts the fruit and vegetable benefit by 10%. In the wealthiest country on earth, why are we arguing over whether babies and toddlers get access to fruits and vegetables? The idea that we would save a few dollars by abandoning women and children in crisis is just unconscionable. And this bill doesn't just undermine food security at home. It guts food assistance around the globe.
▶ 1:07:02In fact, it would cut food for peace to its lowest level since 2002 when there were two billion fewer people on Earth. Even as millions around the world face famine, these cuts are as morally indefensible as they are strategically foolish. Hunger breeds instability. And America has long used food diplomacy to promote peace and goodwill. The majority of those we help feed with American grown crops are children.
▶ 1:07:27That USAD bag of rice, peas, or flour that we deliver may be the first time they've seen an American flag. To turn our backs on that legacy just to let crops rot in warehouses and harbors puts lives at risk and weakens US leadership and standing around the globe. And where wherever we withdraw, adversaries and malign actors will happily fill the vacuum. But the atrocities of this bill are not limited to just the nutrition programs. It cuts FDA funding by more than $300 million, threatening the safety of our food and medicines.
▶ 1:07:57Just as families need more reassurance, not less, that what they put in their bodies are safe. The FDA is not a luxury. It is a baseline public health necessity. So, let's be clear about what's really happening here. This isn't about fiscal responsibility. If it were, we wouldn't be handing out tax cuts to billionaires while cutting food benefits for pregnant women. This is about an ideological agenda, one that undermines the federal government's role in protecting the vulnerable, supporting small farmers, and sustaining rural America.
▶ 1:08:26This bill reflects the wrong priorities and the wrong values. It asks the most from those who have the least while asking nothing at all from those who have benefited the most. The American people expect us to use our power of the purse to ensure their well-being and advance their interests, not to play politics with their nutrition, their health, and their safety. This is not a serious or responsible funding bill. It is a blueprint for increased hunger, weakened oversight, and greater hardship for the very families that we're here to serve.
▶ 1:08:54Democrats will continue to fight for an agenda that lowers costs, protects children, strengthens public health, and upholds the constitutional power of the purse. We need a government that fights for families, not one that punishes them to reward billionaires. I urge my colleagues to reject this bill and return with a serious proposal that meets the needs of the American people. Thank you. I yield back the balance of my time. Thank you. Any other members wish to be recognized? Mr. Chairman, gentle lady from Ohio. Thank you.
▶ 1:09:22Uh, Chairman Harris and Ranking Member Bishop, I rise in strong opposition to the fiscal year 2026 agriculture appropriations bill. This bill does not reduce costs. It increases our debt, plain and simple, all the while handing massive tax breaks to the ultra wealthy in our country by making working families and the middle class pay the price.
▶ 1:09:46I want a bill that assures crop insurance to compensate for the 2024 crop losses that impact six of the eight counties that I represent and am privileged to do so and also meets the problems our farmers are facing because of ill-considered tariffs where they've lost uh sales all across the world. I want to deal with a bill that meets the housing shortages in rural America.
▶ 1:10:11Uh, I want to deal with the shaky budgets that are facing our rural hospitals due to the proposed cuts in Medicaid, which is so critical to the budgets of these hospitals. Uh, I want a bill that meets rising food needs impacting people across our region because of the cost of everything and what's happening inside of our food banks that need more food and aren't getting it. Uh, I want a bill that meets the shortages of a follow-on generation of farmers in this country. uh we need to do much better there.
▶ 1:10:41And finally, I want a bill that um uh is a hand up, not a handout, to local producers in rural and urban America that want to expand local food production to meet food needs through reforms in USDA's nutrition programs, both for children and for seniors, and work handinand with the Natural Resource and Conservation Service to help achieve that. across the vast array of USDA's programs.
▶ 1:11:12Now, for the bill we're looking at to pay for the tax breaks that are inherent in the larger bill, this bill cuts food programs that prevent hunger, improve the health of children and seniors, and support farmers. This bill kicks the can down the road on the debt and shifts cause shifts costs into the future, ballooning our rising debt. These costs will be paid by America's working families nationwide while again shifting gigantic tax breaks to billionaires.
▶ 1:11:43Meanwhile, cutting the wick fruit and vegetable benefit program may save money today, but it leads to higher Medicaid and health care costs tomorrow. Eliminating the urban agriculture and innovative production program hurts cities like Toledo and Lorraine and Cleveland and Akran and our part of Ohio.
▶ 1:12:03These local food systems empower citizens in order to be more self-reliant and lessen our over reliance on purchases from large agricultural conglomerates. With prices on everything rising in America, why are we cutting emergency food aid through Doge? Cutting nutrition now means more spending later on emergency food aid and public programs. The high cost of living is felt first in rising hunger needs across the district. I represent.
▶ 1:12:33Come and visit the food banks in our region if you have any doubt about what I'm saying. This bill also slashes agricultural research that weakens our farmers ability to prepare for crop failures, market shocks, and climate risks. Seven of uh eight of the counties I represent had major crop losses last year. They don't like to farm the mailbox, but they haven't gotten the checks. Less research also means more volatility and more federal bailouts when disaster strikes.
▶ 1:13:01This bill cuts risk management programs, conservation efforts, and rural development loans. When farmers can't manage risk, when housing deteriorates, guess who gets stuck with the bill? The American people down the road. America remains the richest country in the world. And why? While the world faces growing hunger that drives migration. This bill cuts food for peace to its lowest level in over two decades. That's not savings.
▶ 1:13:27It invites our adversaries and they are there to fill the gaps and it cuts off revenue streams for American farmers, producers and growers. This bill is fiscally irresponsible by placing more burdens on the farmers doing the hardest work and replaces them with bigger liabilities. Let's be honest, you don't reduce the deficit, short-changing children, on nutritious foods, and undercutting farmers. You do it by investing wisely and increasing production here at home.
▶ 1:13:56What America makes and grows makes and grows America. And we have devolved too much reliance on foreign producers. How about the fact we import 75% of our fruits and vegetables, folks. Think about that. We need to reempower our own farmers and use the programs of USDA to do that. And this bill short changes those on their knees and in their cabs going across those fields and those working with their hands in the soil. The authors of this bill should go back to the drawing boards.
▶ 1:14:25I certainly want to work with them. We must do better and I yield back. Thank you. Thank you very much. Any other members seek recognition? Seeing no amendments, I'd like to recognize Mr. Franklin, the subcommittee vice chairman, for the purpose of making a motion. Thank you, chairman. I move the bill be favorably reported to the full committee. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed, no. No. In the opinion of the chair, the eyes have it.
▶ 1:14:55Mr. Chairman, I request a recorded vote. A recorded vote has been requested. All those in favor of recorded vote, raise hand. A sufficient number in support, a recorded vote is ordered. The clerk will call the role. Mr. Adder Holtz, I. Mr. Adhold, I. Mr. Bishop, no. Mr. Bishop, no. Mr. Klein Mr.
▶ 1:15:25Cole Miss Deloro no Miss Deloro no Mr. Franklin Mr. Franklin I Miss Gluen Campamp Perez no Miss Gluen Camp Perez no Dr. Harris I Dr. Harris. I Miss Henson. I Miss Henson. I Miss Captor. No. Miss Captor. No. Miss Llo. Hi. Miss Lllo. I Mr. Molinar. Hi. Mr. Molinar.
▶ 1:15:54I Mr. New House. Hi. Mr. New House. I Miss Pingri. No. Miss Pingri. No. Ms. Underwood. No. Miss. Underwood. No. Mr. Valado. I Mr. Valido. I Miss Werman Schultz. No, Miss Werman Schultz. No. Clerk will tally.
▶ 1:16:56Let me answer.
▶ 1:18:37You got to be Does any other member wish to be Mr. Klene.
▶ 1:19:01I clerk will tally On this vote, the eyes are nine, the nose are seven. The bill is favorably reported to the full committee. I ask unanimous consent that staff be permitted to make technical and conforming changes to the bill and report. Without objection, so ordered.
▶ 1:19:25Copies of the bill and report with technical and conforming changes will be delivered to all full committee members offices no later than three business days before full committee. Thank you. The committee now stands adjourned.