[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 109 (Wednesday, July 20, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H5244]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1030
        ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY'S AGRICULTURAL POLICIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Kansas (Mr. Pompeo) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POMPEO. Mr. Speaker, last night this body passed a piece of 
legislation that takes a first good step toward fixing America's 
spending problem, toward taking on our spending addiction and 
addressing the enormous deficits and debt that our Nation faces.
  But we all know there's a second component to making sure that we 
solve this deficit and debt crisis, and that's economic growth. It's 
jobs. It's allowing the American entrepreneur, the American consumer to 
have affordable products, and in the case of Kansas, the American 
farmer and agriculture producer to survive, to continue to do the 
things that they need to do to feed the world.
  I've been in Congress just 6 months now, and I've watched this 
administration's Environmental Protection Agency act with respect to 
our agriculture community with radical indifference or, worse, outright 
hostility. These are folks who are providing affordable food for our 
entire world, and yet this administration--this administration--seeks 
to regulate it. It seeks to harass it. It seeks to impose burdens which 
will cause this great source of wealth for our Nation to leave. I want 
to talk about that because it's so important for the growth of our 
Nation and the success of our Nation to continue to have that industry 
thrive, and I want to talk about some of the things I've seen in just 
these 6 months.
  The American farmer needs energy. The American farmer needs 
affordable energy. In this morning's Wichita Eagle, our primary utility 
in western Kansas and south central Kansas said that the utility rules 
that this administration is about to impose will put them in a place 
where they cannot comply. Now, I'm not talking about increased costs. 
We know that this administration has driven higher electricity rates. 
We're talking about a utility that will not be able to comply with a 
set of regulations this administration is putting in place. That's not 
good for the agriculture community in Kansas. They rely on affordable 
energy.
  The examples go on. This administration, under the Clean Air Act, has 
attempted to regulate dust. Now, I don't know about folks that live out 
further this way, but in Kansas, on a dry day like today when it's 110 
degrees, there's a little bit of dust when you drive your truck down 
the road. Yet they want to say, no, that's a regulated particulate 
matter. Where's the common sense?
  Today they're changing the clean air rules to take a set of chemicals 
that are already regulated under a set of regulations that have been in 
existence for decades and saying, no, we want to add another layer. We 
want you to now have to be permitted to have these chemicals that have 
already been demonstrated to be safe in their use in agricultural 
production.
  We've seen what they've tried to do with greenhouse gas regulation as 
well. We saw this body respond by not giving the President cap-and-
trade, and I'm thankful for that. But we've now get the Environmental 
Protection Agency that's trying to do the same through regulatory fiat. 
And now the Department of Transportation is chiming in as well, trying 
to regulate trucks, farm equipment under rules that are normally 
intended for cross country truckers and trying to regulate them in the 
same way, putting an additional burden on the agricultural community 
that has been operating their farm equipment in south central Kansas in 
an incredibly safe way for decades.
  I hope that this administration will reconsider. We cannot continue 
to drive costs. We cannot continue to regulate the Kansas agricultural 
community. We cannot harass it into its leaving our country. We know 
this is important. If we drive up the cost of food, we'll drive up 
inflation. That's good for no one.
  I hope this administration will reconsider, that they'll use some 
common sense. Our farmers, our agriculture producers want clean air. 
They make it happen. They need clean water. They ensure that it happens 
every day. We do not need this administration to harass them into 
leaving the very profession that is so important to our country.

                          ____________________