Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2012

Floor Speech

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* Ms. RICHARDSON. Madam Chair, I am compelled to rise in strong opposition to H.R. 2112, the Fiscal Year 2012 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for three reasons.

* First, the bill makes drastic and dangerous cuts to food safety programs and nutrition assistance for women, children, and seniors.

* Second, by underfunding President Obama's request by 23 percent, this bill also makes draconian cuts to necessary conservation programs that protect our country's water supplies and manage critical natural resources.

* Third, this substantially reduces funding for the Commodity Futures Trading Corporation, the watchdog agency designated by Congress to protect consumers from Wall Street greed and predatory conduct.

* Madam Chair, the funding reductions in this bill will adversely affect every American. For example, the $285 million slashed from the Food and Drug Administration will be a devastating blow to the agency tasked with ensuring food safety standards. The FDA is our country's first and most important line of defense against diseases such as E.coli and Salmonella, and with outbreaks of these illnesses on the rise, this cut endangers everyone in America.

* In my home state of California, agriculture is a $36.6 billion industry that generates at least $100 billion in related economic activity. Any threat to the quality of our produce jeopardizes the economy of our state and the health of all who enjoy our products.

* Madam Chair, this bill recklessly cuts funding for the Commodities Futures Trading Commission by 44% below the President's budget request. The CFTC was established to implement Wall Street reforms and is charged with policing price speculation in commodities, futures, and derivatives markets. The reduction in funding obviously is intended to deprive the CFTC of the resources needed to detect, deter, and prevent the abusive practices that culminated in the economic collapse of 2008. Crippling the CFTC will leave Wall Street speculators free to drive up the price of oil and other commodities while making it more difficult to protect the pension plans of hard working Americans from the effects of another economic downturn.

* Madam Chair, this bill also hurts our environment by cutting $1 billion from conservation programs. The Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) would be cut $171 million relative to its FY 2012 farm bill-mandated level, and if this bill becomes law the government would be unable to honor contracts it has already signed with farmers across the country employing environmentally sustainable agricultural methods.

* The bill also cuts the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) by $350 million. The bill cuts the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) by 64,200 acres and the Grasslands Reserve Program (GRP) by 96,000 acres. In addition, the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP) and the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP) would be cut $50 million and $35 million, respectively. The bill would also cut the Natural Resources Conservation Service's (NRCS) conservation operations budget by nearly $128 million.

* Another troubling aspect of this bill is the reduction made to domestic and international nutrition programs, which hurt the most vulnerable among us.

* The proposed cuts to the Women, Infants, and Children nutrition program (WIC), the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), and the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) would see hundreds of thousands of low-income women, infants, children and seniors losing their food aid.

* Last year, WIC provided nutritious food, counseling on healthy eating and health care referrals for over 9 million women and children under age five and saved more than 200,000 babies from dying at birth. Proper nutrition combats low birth weights and improves a baby's immune system, saving on healthcare costs. The Republican-proposed $650 million cut to the WIC program would deny these services for up to 350,000 low-income women and young children for the next year. In California, 31,800 to 55,700 women and children would be turned away.

* Cuts to the CSFP and TEFAP would hurt low-income senior citizens who have extremely limited options when it comes to proper nutrition. There are 52,000 seniors living in the 37th Congressional District of California, which I represent, and nearly 15 percent of them depend on these programs to stay healthy and avoid hospital visits due to poor dietary health. For this reason, I offered an Amendment to H.R. 2112, redirecting $10 million to CSFP so senior citizens will not have to choose between paying for medication and paying for food.

* Finally, H.R. 2112 makes drastic cuts to international food aid and poverty alleviation programs. These programs constitute a critical component of US foreign policy, expressing humanitarian goodwill to our allies around the world and promoting a positive image of America abroad. Given all the President and Secretary of State have done to improve our international standing, it makes no sense for Congress to undo this good work by lessening its commitment to combat world hunger.

* I. disturbs me than in their short-sighted rush to cut spending, my Republican colleagues would take food from the weakest and the poorest among us while preserving the Bush-era tax cuts for the super-rich. The American people do not accept this trade-off. My constituents in the 37th Congressional District reject this trade-off. I urge my colleagues to join them and me in voting against this unfair and ill-considered legislation.

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