[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 201 (Thursday, December 20, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1693]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 2, AGRICULTURE AND NUTRITION ACT OF 2018

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. PETER A. DeFAZIO

                               of oregon

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, December 12, 2018

  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I will vote in support of H.R. 2, the 
Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, also known as the Farm bill.
  The bill contains many of my priorities. As the author of the 1990 
Organic Food Production Act and co-chair of the House Organic Caucus, I 
am pleased the conference report includes robust funding to help 
conventional producers transition to organic farming, strong research 
funding, and new authority for organic producers to be eligible for 
conservation programs when previously the programs were only available 
to conventional farmers. The bill also maintains current SNAP benefit 
levels, increases funding for food bank programs, including The 
Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), and keeps separate funding 
streams for the Environmental Quality Incentive Program and the 
Conservation Stewardship Program.
  However, the bill maintains the current agricultural subsidy 
programs, which I strongly oppose. The subsidies are only supposed to 
go to those ``actively engaged in farming.'' Yet under the bill, the 
nearly $900 billion in subsidies continue to be skewed towards wealthy 
individuals and mega-farms at the expense of small and medium-sized 
farms. In fact, the Environmental Working Group found that 18,000 
Americans living in urban areas received more than $63 million in 
subsidies in 2015 and 2016.
  Not only do the subsidy loopholes from previous Farm bills remain, 
they are made even worse in this newest Farm bill, which expands the 
definition of ``actively engaged in farming'' to nieces, nephews and 
cousins--even if they have never set foot on the farm.
  Real farmers, especially small- and medium-sized family farms, are in 
the middle of one of the worst economic downturns in decades, and they 
need and deserve our help before they are forced to sell their farms 
and lose their way of life. While the Farm bill contained many 
improvements to previous bills, the lack of reform and the expansion of 
subsidy program eligibility is outrageous. I will continue working to 
reform agricultural subsidy programs to ensure that the benefits go to 
small- and medium-sized farms, and only to those that actually work the 
land.

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