[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 103 (Thursday, June 16, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H5613-H5614]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                ROLL BACK REGULATIONS TO PREVENT FAMINE

  (Mr. LaMALFA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, ever since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, 
world leaders have been warning of imminent food shortages, including 
our own President.
  Two of the largest producers of wheat and oilseed are embroiled at 
war. Ukrainian civilians are fighting to protect their homes and their 
self-sovereignty. They aren't out planting crops as normal.
  Meanwhile, there are breaking reports of Russian soldiers stealing 
Ukrainian wheat, selling it at marked-up costs to nations facing food 
insecurity in Africa.
  Meanwhile, the Russian Navy has blocked grain carriers from leaving 
Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odessa in an effort to blackmail the world 
into supporting Putin's war.

[[Page H5614]]

  The U.N. is trying to broker a deal that will enable Ukraine's grain 
to be shipped from ports such as Odessa, but Russia has said it wants 
Western sanctions lifted as part of the deal. Twenty million tons of 
Ukrainian grain is stuck in Ukraine, at risk of being stolen by 
Russians.
  What are we doing in this country? We are not producing the way we 
could in California. Waters are being shifted away from farmers, and so 
our own wheat crops in northern California are dying out.
  The Biden administration must roll back the regulations that are 
making it hard for farmers in this country to do what they need to do 
to be a part of this world solution for food, as famine will soon be 
upon us, especially in the 2023 crop year.

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