[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 18 (Tuesday, January 28, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H575-H576]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 SUPPORTING CHILD NUTRITION RULEMAKING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Kentucky (Mr. Comer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COMER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to applaud the Trump 
administration's recent proposed rulemaking for school meals and the 
Summer Food Service Program.
  As a member of the Agriculture Committee, and ranking member on the 
Education and Labor Subcommittee with jurisdiction over the child 
nutrition programs, I have consistently heard from school food service 
administrators in my district about their frustrations with the 
heavyhanded Obama-era regulations.
  I am glad to see the administration is seeking input from those who 
administer these programs every day. This new rule will provide needed 
flexibility for food service supervisors to adapt their menus to teach 
students proper

[[Page H576]]

nutrition habits that they will adopt during crucial periods of growth 
and into adulthood.
  These food service professionals know the needs of their students 
best, and I look forward to seeing this rule finalized and our schools 
and communities become even stronger.


          Updates on Agriculture and the Trade War with China

  Mr. COMER. Mr. Speaker, I think most people in this body know that I 
am a farmer by trade, and I represent a southern Kentucky district that 
is one of the biggest agricultural districts in America.
  I am very pleased today to give an update on the accomplishments that 
the Trump administration and Congress has made over the past 3 years 
with respect to agriculture.
  Anyone that keeps up with President Trump knows that he sincerely 
cares about the farmers in America; and he realizes that the farmers, 
through no fault of their own, have been on the front lines of this 
trade war with China.
  But if you talk to any farmer, as I do on a regular basis when I am 
home in Kentucky, the farmers still strongly support the President and 
they understand why we are in this trade war. They also understand the 
efforts that have been made and the accomplishments that have been 
achieved with respect to agriculture from this administration and from 
this Congress over the past 3 years.
  I want to touch on three areas where we focused in Congress, where I 
focused as a member of the Agriculture Committee, to improve our 
agriculture for our family farmers who are struggling, again, on the 
front lines of this trade war with China.
  First of all, regulations. As with many other industries in America, 
one of the first things that President Trump looked at, and then the 
Republicans and the majority of this body looked at 3 years ago, was 
the regulations. Many industries, especially in agriculture, felt like 
there were burdensome regulations that were holding farmers back, 
holding agriculture back.
  So, one by one, this administration, whether it was through the U.S. 
Department of Agriculture, or the EPA, has looked at every regulation 
to deem whether that regulation was necessary, or whether that 
regulation was excessive and needed to be scaled back.

                              {time}  1045

  I am very pleased to report that the biggest regulation that scared 
most people in agriculture was the WOTUS rule from the Obama 
administration. I am very pleased, last week, this administration 
completely eliminated the WOTUS rule with respect to navigable streams. 
Under the Obama regulation, every mud puddle in Kentucky would have 
been defined as a navigable stream, therefore, creating a situation 
where farmers would be breaking the law to farm the land that they 
farmed for many generations.
  Next is tax policy. We focused very heavily on passing the Tax Cuts 
and Jobs Act, which helped cut taxes overall, but one thing that helped 
agriculture is the accelerated depreciation rule, which encouraged 
farmers to make a bigger investment.
  And, lastly, trade. We have had huge success on the trade front over 
the past couple of weeks here in Washington, and I applaud the Trump 
administration for their efforts to not only sign the USMCA, which is 
the new modern NAFTA deal that puts workers on a level playing field in 
America with workers in Mexico and Canada, but it also enhances 
agriculture opportunities.
  Also, the phase one trade deal that the President signed recently 
with China, this focuses on agriculture. It brings back those markets 
that we lost in agriculture because we were on the front lines of this 
trade war, and it also increases new markets for agriculture.
  I am very pleased with the achievements that have been made in 
agriculture, but I realize that our farmers are struggling and we have 
a lot more work to do. I pledge to continue to work with the Trump 
administration to see that our farmers are treated fairly and that we 
can continue to grow our Nation's most important industry: agriculture.

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