Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROUZER. Mr. Chairman, America's farm families have had to weather a 5-year recession with depressed prices resulting in a 52-percent drop in net farm income. Two-thirds of our farming operations today are in economic trouble, and chapter 12 bankruptcies have risen by 33 percent in just 2 years. So it is no secret that our Nation's farmers and ranchers are struggling.

I hear all this talk during the past month about a free market, how everything would be so much better without farm programs. ``We want a complete, total free market,'' they say. From an intellectual and philosophical standpoint, I would love that. We all would. But here is the problem: that isn't the real world.

There is no free market when you have countries all around the world subsidizing their agriculture production to the hilt. For example, Communist China agreed to a subsidy limit as part of their accession to the WTO in 2001. But what do they do? They exceed that subsidy limit by $100 billion on just three crops alone in 1 year. That is no free market.

Farm programs account for 0.24 percent of the total Federal budget, and in return, every individual and family in this country is guaranteed an abundant, affordable food supply, and the very best nutritious food at an exceptionally affordable price. That is, quite frankly, a huge return on a relatively small investment, not to mention what agriculture means to our rural economies and our trade balance with the rest of the world.

American agriculture is more than just being the best producers in the business and feeding the world. It is about food security and national security. Once a farm is gone, it isn't coming back. It is not like your local hardware store that goes out of business; it is not like that space isn't going to be replaced by another business; it will. Farms, on the other hand, are replaced by developments taking some of our very best farmland out of production.

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Mr. ROUZER. Mr. Chairman, we have lost 44 million acres of farmland during the past 30 years.

Mr. Chairman, passage of this farm bill is absolutely critical to the livelihood and success of our farm families and food supply. I encourage and hope that every one of us will vote for this bill.

This farm bill strengthens the farm safety net while making other vital improvements to current law that will benefit our farm families, rural communities, and animal agriculture sector--such as the establishment of a new U.S.-only vaccine bank to prevent Foot-and-Mouth disease, authorizing $1.1 billion to provide broadband service to harder-to-serve rural areas, and providing the Secretary of Agriculture with tools necessary to help combat the ongoing opioid crises which is hitting rural America especially hard.

Additionally, this farm bill makes common sense changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to encourage work and provide for job training.

The vast majority of Americans would agree that if you work you should be better off than if you don't work. Under this bill, we simply ask that those who are of working age and are perfectly capable, work 20 hours a week. And, if one can't find work we will pay for their job training so that everyone can attain the skills necessary to get the job they want.

The unfortunate reality is that we have too many SNAP recipients stuck in the program with no pathway to upward mobility. Why? Because current SNAP requirements are outdated and riddled with loopholes that incentivize the status quo and fail to support those who need it most. In fact, more than 2/3 of work-capable adults on SNAP are not currently employed.

Today unemployment numbers are at 3.9 percent. In the year 2000, the last time unemployment was this low, there were 17 million people on SNAP. Today, we have more than 41 million people on SNAP yet the unemployment is exactly the same. Mr. Speaker, if that doesn't illustrate the problem, I don't know what does.

We must do better.

This farm bill puts this country on the path to do just that. It makes much needed reforms to ensure that recipients of these benefits-- those who are perfectly capable of work--have a pathway to upward mobility, can get good jobs, and ultimately use their God-given talents to achieve a rewarding career.

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