Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026
Floor Speech
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Ms. MACE. Mr. Chair, if you visit South Carolina's Lowcountry, you will understand commercial shrimping and fishing are not just the backbone of our coastal communities but a part of our heritage and our way of life. You will find shrimp festivals, oyster roasts, and Lowcountry boils nearly every weekend during the season.
In communities across South Carolina's First Congressional District from McClellanville to Mount Pleasant to Beaufort to Bluffton to Hilton Head and Hilton Head Island, Mr. Chair, you will see thousands show up to bless the fleet of shrimp boats when they head out to begin their season.
Across the State of South Carolina, Mr. Chair, you will see communities, neighbors, and families come together around locally caught seafood and see people come from thousands of miles away just to taste it.
However, Mr. Chair, talk to any shrimper or fisherman in this country, and you will know that the commercial fishing and shrimping industries are struggling. For too long, the USDA has ignored our shrimpers and our fishermen, the farmers of the sea, who put nutritious, fresh seafood on our tables at dinner.
President Trump understands food security is national security, and he has recognized the importance of revitalizing our domestic seafood industry. Last April he issued an executive order titled Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness.
Last fall, we saw the USDA establish a new seafood liaison in the Secretary's office to ensure the voices of our seafood harvesters are heard.
Just a few weeks ago, Secretary Rollins announced the creation of the first-ever Office of Seafood within the Department of Agriculture. This gives our shrimpers and our fishermen a seat at the table.
Our amendment would codify the newly established Office of Seafood at the USDA, ensuring our commercial shrimpers and fishermen as well as our fish processors, are integrated into USDA programs.
The Office of Seafood would also be responsible for working alongside the Department of Commerce, the U.S. Trade Representative, NOAA, and other Federal agencies and departments to revitalize the American seafood industry.
The hardworking South Carolinians who work our waters and put fresh, local seafood on our plates deserve this. This amendment would deliver it.
I will always stand with South Carolina's shrimpers and fishermen, and I urge all Members to support our domestic seafood industry by voting in favor of this amendment.
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Ms. MACE. Mr. Chair, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Thompson).
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Ms. MACE. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Ms. MACE. Mr. Chairman, an onslaught of substandard foreign seafood, often subsidized by foreign governments or international financial institutions, is being dumped into our markets, devastating our domestic seafood industry.
For example, after hearing testimony of some of my constituents, the U.S. International Trade Commission has determined that Ecuador, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam were illegally subsidizing and dumping shrimp, imposing antidumping and countervailing duties.
This foreign seafood is often caught through illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing and employs brutal working conditions, including the use of child or forced labor. These foreign actors also don't abide by the same stringent food safety standards we have in our country, using banned antibiotics and other chemicals in their seafood.
Just last year, there was a recall of foreign shrimp from Indonesia which was contaminated with cesium-137. The foreign shrimp was literally radioactive. Mr. Chair, imagine all the contaminated foreign seafood that slips into our food supply undetected.
This has all combined to push down dock prices for our domestic shrimpers and fishermen. In some parts of the country, dock prices for shrimp fell to around $1 per pound in recent years.
This coupled with the inflation we experienced under the previous administration and elevated fuel costs is causing the perfect storm.
Facing anticompetitive foreign practices, falling dock prices, and economic headwinds, fishermen and shrimpers are struggling not just to earn a living but to even make it to the next season.
To illustrate the scope and scale of this problem, total value of U.S. commercial seafood landings has fallen 25 percent from 2021 to 2024. Landings by weight have fallen to their lowest levels since 1988. At the same time, our food supply has become increasingly dependent on foreign seafood. Today, foreign imports account for approximately 94 percent of total seafood consumption in America.
This is exactly why I am offering this amendment today. Our shrimpers and fishermen put food on the table, they are the farmers of sea, and it is past time we started treating them like it.
The USDA has a variety of programs to provide assistance to farmers and ranchers, and it is time we allowed our commercial fishermen to take part in them.
This amendment would amend the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act to include commercial fishing and fish processing as eligible agricultural activities for USDA programs, unlocking access to many grant, loan, and assistance programs for shrimpers and fishermen.
This amendment would also ensure commercial fishermen and fish processors have access to USDA Farm Ownership Loans and Farm Operating Loans.
Best of all, according to the Congressional Budget Office, this amendment is budget neutral.
This is a commonsense way to support the shrimpers and fishermen who feed our families and make South Carolina's Lowcountry, and so many places across our Nation's coasts, very special.
I thank Representative Carbajal for partnering with me on this amendment. I urge all Members to support this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Ms. MACE. Mr. Chair, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Thompson).
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Ms. MACE. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Ms. MACE. Mr. Chairman, since I came to Congress, I have been fighting to put an end to taxpayer-funded animal cruelty.
We have seen great successes, including successfully eliminating these painful and inhumane animal experiments across the VA, Department of War, and more. Today, we seek to build on the significant progress with this amendment.
Based on our bipartisan bill, Violet's Law, which we named after a hound dog which was rescued from a government lab, our amendment would ensure the humane treatment of lab animals once they are retired.
Each year, thousands of animals like Violet are used in Federal labs, many of them in noninvasive and nonterminal testing. Too often, when that research ends, these animals, despite being healthy, are killed simply because there is no policy in place to retire them.
Our amendment fixes that.
Rather than being euthanized, my amendment would ensure Federal research facilities establish procedures to facilitate the adoption or nonlaboratory placement of dogs, cats, nonhuman primates, guinea pigs, hamsters, and rabbits used in government labs.
It would allow agencies to place these precious animals with animal rescue organizations, animal sanctuaries, and animal shelters to facilitate finding their new home or with an individual looking to adopt the animal.
This is a commonsense idea which is already working. We have already seen some Federal agencies adopt policies allowing lab animals to be retired and rehomed. Many States have adopted similar laws.
This idea is supported not just by animal welfare advocates, but by leaders in the biomedical research community, as well.
We can judge a man and a country by its treatment of animals, and our country can do so much better than euthanizing healthy, innocent animals created by God.
I thank Representative Titus for partnering with me on this amendment, and I urge all Members to support this amendment. Together, we can save the lives of countless innocent dogs, cats, guinea pigs, hamsters, and rabbits.
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Ms. MACE. Mr. Chairman, I would encourage my colleagues to support the amendment and vote for its passage. I yield back the balance of my time.
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