Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2008
Floor Speech
AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008 -- (House of Representatives - August 02, 2007)
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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of this excellent bill to support food, fiber, fuel and forest production across this Nation.
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Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank the Chairwoman Ms. DELAURO, a longstanding colleague, for the excellent bill she has assembled. As the former ranking member of the Agriculture Appropriations subcommittee, it has been a pleasure to see my colleague bring together our subcommittee through a form of collegiality unrivaled in this day of partisanship. This year's agriculture appropriations bill has been many years in coming, investing in the critical resources necessary to move agriculture and much of rural America fully into the 21st Century.
Ms. DELAURO has been a true leader and has produced a bill that should make all members of the Subcommittee proud. This bill invests in energy independence, secures our Nation's food supply, provides nutritional assistance for those living on the edge and link production from local small farmers with our urban consumers. The bill helps to grow America's economy through investing in rural America's potential for food, fiber, fuel and forest production.
Along with breakthrough investments in energy that will result from the recent farm bill, this measure moves America forward with a plan to use agriculture to solve our energy crisis. This legislation provides $350 million for biomass and renewable energy projects and $500 million to electrify America with wind power. This bill also provides $46 million for an innovative USDA grant program to help America transition to renewable energy sources, a program that has a long record of investing in the technologies of tomorrow. Agriculture holds the key if we are going to wean our Country from our dangerous dependence on foreign oil. This bill provides important incentive to transition us into the economy of tomorrow.
The Department of Agriculture dedicates almost 2/3 of its budget to nutrition, yet, there have been scarce few attempts to link local producers with urban consumers. This bill confronts those challenges and directs the Department of Agriculture to connect local farmers with procurement from USDA major nutrition programs. In addition, this bill also provides $20 million for the senior farmers market nutrition program, an approach so wildly successful with the elderly and with farmers that it regularly has more requests than funds available. For our Nation's farmers markets, this bill also provides $1,000,000 for the Farmers' Market Promotion Program to establish, expand, and promote farmers' markets to connect local production to the local marketplace.
I am also pleased to rise in support of the $150 million for the Commodity Supplemental Food Program that this legislation provides. This bill provides enough money to expand CSFP in 5 new states, providing a food supplement for those who cannot make ends meet.
These agriculture nutrition programs bridge the gap between urban and rural, linking consumers with local producers--helping to provide fresh produce, vegetables and commodities to those with little access to nutritious foods.
On food safety, this bill confronts critical challenges to the integrity of our food system. This bill blocks implementation of a rule which would allow poultry importation
from China and provides funds to implement the long awaited process of labeling the country of origin for food in our marketplace. It has taken many years to bring this issue to the forefront. But now it appears that Congress is finally giving consumers the tools for making effective decisions on what they choose to eat.
Before I close, I would like to advise the administration of language which clearly expresses the intent of Congress on the failed policy of Farm Service Agency closures. In both the Agriculture Appropriations bill and in the recently passed Farm Bill, the House of Representatives expressed its discontent with efforts to move forward with these closures. As there seems to be significant confusion on the intent of Congress on Farm Service Agency office closures, I respectfully refer the FSA Administration to two sections in recent legislation passed in the House of Representatives which clearly provide the intent of Congress on this issue.
In H.R. 2419 Section 11306 and Page 56 of the House Appropriations Report from H.R. 3161 clearly express the intent of Congress. As FSA moves forward with office closures in Ohio and across the Country, I strongly urge the administration to recognize the clear intent of the House Appropriations Committee, the House Agriculture Committee and the full House of Representatives.
In sum, this bill takes a major step forward for our Nation in opening new markets for farmers, makes major strides in conservation of our natural resources, attends to the food needs of all of America's needy families and children, moves rural America into renewable energy production, addresses challenges posed by serious environmental invasive species, and expands our food safety efforts. America must dedicate itself to food self sufficiency here at home and displace the rising levels of food imports. This bill invests in our Nation and our producers and consumers. I urge my colleagues to support it.
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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, I rise to oppose the gentleman's amendment and to allow the importation of safe prescription drugs into our country.
You know, the pharmaceutical companies are making record profits. I represent a district along the Canadian border. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of sick people from our district have to drive up over that bridge, the Windsor Bridge, up into Canada in order to take care of their mentally ill kids. The senior citizens that can't afford drugs, or they've been thrown out of a job, to try to keep house and home together as they have to purchase various pharmaceutical products.
What do we have an FDA for if it isn't for certification? That's what we want them to do. These drugs are being bought from certified pharmacies.
You know, the seniors that come through the supermarket aisle in the place where I shop back home, they're choosing between food and medicine. What kind of a choice is that, really?
You don't have to buy unsafe drugs. You can buy safe drugs. We want the FDA to regulate. I'd prefer to see drug prices reach an affordable level in our Nation and to make sure that all of our people have full prescription drug coverage under Medicare, and that's the direction we ought to move, including drug coverage under our insurance programs.
But there's absolutely no reason to buy the red herring that if you buy pharmaceuticals in Canada they're not safe. There isn't a single person in my district that has ever gotten sick, because they go to certified pharmacies.
The tragedy is they cannot afford those drugs in this country.
And I want to compliment Congresswoman DeLauro, who has fought on this, Congresswoman Emerson, who has fought on this. It seems like we keep fighting this because the pharmaceutical companies keep fighting us to do what's right for this country.
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