Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. NEWHOUSE. Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the ranking member on the House Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, Mr. Aderholt, for yielding, as well as for his strong leadership on behalf of our agricultural community.

Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to the bill before us today. Throughout last year, the House Appropriations Committee worked on a bipartisan basis to find common ground for fiscal year 2019 appropriations bills, including the vitally important Agriculture appropriations legislation.

Unfortunately, the bill before us today does not reflect those bipartisan efforts. As I have been sharing with my constituents, the bill before us has never had a hearing in this body, has never had a markup in this body, and now has no opportunity for amendments to be offered.

By taking up this bill, unfortunately, House Democrats are effectively writing off the people's House and shirking our responsibilities by deferring to the U.S. Senate. My constituents' priorities--and I would submit those of constituents of my colleagues across the aisle--deserve to be heard.

I offered two important amendments to the Agriculture appropriations bill in the Rules Committee this week. Both amendments previously passed unanimously in the Appropriations Committee and, rightfully, should be in the bill before us.

The first was a bipartisan amendment I offered with my colleague, Sanford Bishop, who was the then-ranking member of the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Subcommittee. The amendment would have upheld the longstanding prohibition of releasing proprietary SNAP sales data of food retailers.

Due to a decision last year in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, USDA will be required to release the SNAP redemption data of all retail stores across the United States. The result will be irreparable harm to competition in the food retail marketplace. My amendment sought to prevent the closure of grocery stores in both rural and urban areas by upholding this longstanding USDA practice.

The second bipartisan amendment passed unanimously in the Appropriations Committee directed USDA to work with H-2A agency partners to modernize, develop, and implement an online application system for the H-2A program.

I constantly hear from farmers in central Washington about how inefficient the H-2A program operates due to the continued use of paper-only applications. Many farmers have had to deal with lost applications and other logistical inefficiencies, making the H-2A program inconsistent and all too often an unreliable program for farmers.

This amendment supported the administration's regulatory task force reform efforts to modernize that program with technological advancements that would make the program more user-friendly. It demonstrated an important step to providing relief for farmers facing a broken bureaucratic maze when trying to access a reliable workforce.

Madam Speaker, these are just two of the many reasons that I am not supporting the bill before us. But there are other issues that must be pointed out, like the fact that the House bill made a major investment in the new broadband pilot program for rural America by adding an additional $550 million in infrastructure for the unserved and underserved. This bill undercuts that by $125 million.

In regard to the important matter of food and drug safety, our House bill included higher levels of funding for the FDA, which is critical to helping industry advance their medical products to the marketplace sooner, safer, and with greater efficiency.

The House bill included language to secure set-aside funds for persistent poverty counties in rural areas. This provision was vital to rural communities across the country that face challenges escaping poverty. Unfortunately, that is not included in this bill.

Lastly, the House bill included nearly $30 million more for the National Institute of Food and Agriculture for research that is vital to our Nation's food security priorities. Again, that is not included in this bill.

Madam Speaker, as a proud member of the Appropriations Committee, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this legislation. The bipartisan work conducted by House appropriators must be honored. We should not abdicate our responsibility and the voices of our constituents to the Senate.

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