While we were on the august recess, it was projected that theyd reach trillion, doubling the estimate of we simply cannot continue down this path of spending large sums of money without regard to the fiscal future of our nation. This bill takes the same approach American Families take every day. They simply have to do more with less under the biden economy. American families decide every single day where to cut back spending to pay for whats most important for them. For them, those decisions are difficult. Likewise, we have to make tough, difficult decisions for the good of the nation. This represents 2. 7 billion across discretionary accounts throughout this bill except for the Supplemental Program for w. I. C. With this reduction the fiscal year 2024 agriculture appropriation bills discretionary allocation is 15. 1 billion. By redirecting nearly 7. 5 billion in unobligated funds from the inflation reduction act, this funds the food and agriculture and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission with a Effective Program level of 22. 5 billion, a decrease of 12. 8 from the current fiscal year. This legislation prioritizes Critical Ag Research and plant and Animal Health programs, invests in our Rural Communities, provides nutrition assistance to those in need, ensures that American Consumers have a safe food and drug supply. But this legislation rejects the Biden Administrations unrealistic proposed spending levels that disregard the dire fiscal reality our country faces. It also rejects the administrations continued push to bloat inside the beltway federal bureaucracy by halting new hires in the washington, d. C. Office. Instead focusing on hiring a increased usda work force outside the capital beltway in the offices that directly serve and support Rural America. Id like to highlight a few areas where this legislation prioritizes essential functions while being responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars. In regards to supporting the core mission it provides 1 billion for the plant and Animal Inspection Service to support the departments efforts to protect us from foreign animalizeses. It continues to invest in farm programs, Disaster Assistance and Crop Insurance to farmers and ranchers by maintaining services for the farm agency and Risk Management agency. The bill provides 1 billion for the food, safety and Inspection Service to fund our nations front line inspectors of meat and poultry products. We continue to make important investments in Critical Agricultural Research that will keep our producers on the cutting edge of technology and Production Practices and we continue to fund Rural Development programs, including Critical Infrastructure investments in water and wastewater systems, broadband, and Rural Housing programs. For the food and Drug Administration, the bill provides over 6 billion in direct appropriations and user fees to enable the agency to keep food, drugs and medical devices safe and effective. The bill includes 296 million for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to continue to oversee and ensure the integrity of u. S. Derivative markets. With regards to fiscal responsibility, at the same time this legislation reins in some of the administrations wasteful spending and removes the Commodity Credit Corporation to fund unauthorized nonemergency programs by returning statutory language to its precovid language that didnt have that discretionary authority. The c. C. C. Is not intended to allow usda to completely bypass congress in establishing new programs, yet the usda apparently just cant help themselves and thats exactly what theyve been doing with the Commodity Credit Corporation. According to a recent article in agri pulse they intend to use the corporation to spend 1. 3 billion on trade programs and another 1. 1 billion to pay for, quote, commodity based International Food aid. That sounds a lot like the food for Peace Program, since the usda has provided this 1. 1 billion for food aid that will be distributed through fiscal year 2024, the rule amendment reduces food for peace to 532 million. This will put an end to the habitual abuse of the c. C. C. In doing so the bill saves 1 billion in fiscal year 2024 alone. Given the usda uses these discretionary powers to spend another 2. 5 billion and 6. 6 billion in the last two fiscal years, respectively, i would submit to my colleagues the real savings of taxpayers by taking these discretionary authorities away will be much higher than the c. B. O. Score. Mr. Chair, thats exactly what we need in times of the fiscal crisis we are in. Let me be clear, restricting these authorities in the c. C. C. Will have no impact on farm bill programs, Crop Insurance or the secretarys ability to access the c. C. C. In an animal or plant health emergency. The uses for which the program was created, not as a de facto slush fund for the department. All of those important duties and functions will continue under this bill. This legislation also rescinds wasteful spending from the inflation reduction act. It is finally time to be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars by rescinding these new government giveaways. We must work to right size programs especially since the pandemic is over and President Biden ended the Public Health emergency in may. In fact, its time to return to precovid spending levels. And perhaps, mr. Chair, we can return to precovid inflationary levels, too, which im sure the American Public would indeed welcome. Well, this is why were returning the w. I. C. Cash value benefits to a normal sustainable, inflation adjusted funding level. The American Rescue plan provided a onetime increase in these benefits due to the pandemic but these increases continued to be built into the w. I. C. Program in fiscal years 2022 and 2023 after they were due to expire. Keeping these increases on autopilot adds an additional 1 billion to the program. This bill does provide cash value vouchers above prepandemic levels to help with the food inflation caused by the biden economy. But with the end of the Public Health emergency, its time to return this program to normal precovid operations. On the regulatory front, this legislation puts a stop to usdas efforts under the packers and Stockyards Act to dictate how poultry and livestock producers raise and market their animals and prevents the purchase of farmland by our foreign adversaries while providing funds for the Farm Service Agency to fulfill its duty to track Foreign Ownership of land. The bill also returns the use of a drug to the Health Care Providers and is not a drug that should not be used without the supervision of a physician or similarly licensed provider. Anyone who truly cares, who genuinely cares about Womens Health and safety should support this commonsense provision. Finally, as i said earlier, this bill takes the same approach American Families take every single day now. They have to do more with less under the biden inflation economy. American families decide every day where to cut back spending to pay for whats most important. Were not appropriating monopoly money, mr. Chair. It is hard earned taxpayer dollars and sometimes tough decisions have to be made and this bill makes them. In closing, i ask for your support for this important piece of legislation. Mr. Chair, i reserve the balance of my time. The chair the gentleman from maryland reserves. The gentleman from georgia is recognized. Mr. Bishop thank you, mr. Chair. I yield myself such time as i may consume. The chair the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Bishop every day when i anticipate the agriculture appropriations bill coming to the floor, i wake up with my usual admonition that this is the day the lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it, but today as we take up this agriculture bill, it stretches my faith to say that this is a good day because i rise in very, very strong opposition to h. R. 4368. As the Ranking Member of the agriculture, Rural Development, food and Drug Administration and related agencies appropriations subcommittee, im extremely disappointed to see this bill does not meet the needs of americans who rely on this funding to ensure safe food and medicines, healthy and resilient farmlands and strong rural infrastructure. The programs contained in the agriculture funding bill are important for all americans and affect our country in so many ways. These programs help americans by helping American Farmers produce the highest quality, safest, most abundant and most economical food and fiber in the world through the assistance provided through the Farm Service Agency in almost every county in america. They help future generations by funding conservation practices which preserve our farmland and Natural Resources for the years to come. These programs are sense isal to those who live in rural areas and ensure quality of life through access to clean drinking water, electricity, telecommunication, broadband, school infrastructure, and housing. They help feed every american, including our most vulnerable families, seniors and children in difficult times. They fund usda meat and poultry inspectors and f. D. A. Inspectors, of all other Food Products so the food on americans tables are safe and nutritious and funds the cftc and Farm Credit Administration so this bill affects our financial space. I cannot think of a funding subcommittee with a broader reach as our bill has. And the bill with such a broad reach deserves to have these programs adequately funded. However, the bill passed in our full Committee Markup only provided 17. 8 billion in funding which takes us back to the 2007 funding level. That is entirely inadequate for the needs of the American People and had no chance of being passed into law when it came out of committee. Unfortunately, rather than moving in a more productive direction, the majority used a procedural gimmick to impose even greater cuts of 69 to the food for Peace Program, 14. 2 to all other discretionary programs, instead of improving the bill, the rules committee made it even worse. In total, the cuts to the bill have reduced funding 41 lower than last year. The bill before us today will take us back to 2001 levels. That is totally irresponsible. The bill would harm Rural America by taking money from programs supporting Rural Communities such as it cuts 500 million from the Rural Energy FundAmerica Program, the reap program, and it eliminates grants under the program which will raise the energy costs for over 15,000 Rural Farmers and Small Businesses. It takes a billion dollars from Rural Electric cooperatives, 900 cooperatives that serve over 40 Million People in 48 states. It slices 800 million from the w. I. C. Program which drastically also cuts the cash value voucher benefit for fruit and vegetable purchases affecting nearly five million hungry women and children. It strips loan assistance needed by 100,000 economically distressed farmers which could literally cost folks the family farm. It cuts Rural Development programs by over 40 , which means thousands of rural families will no longer be able to get a loan to afford a home. Hundreds of projects meant to provide clean water and wastewater systems will be eliminated and howses of families will not be able to turn on the tap and count on drinkable water. It completely guts the food for peace International Food aid program. It cuts the mcgoverndole program by 14 , a Program Programs which will further exacerbate the Global Hunger and instability and the risk of conflicts abroad which will weaken american security. The bill also strips the secretary, as youve heard, of discretionary useful the Commodity Credit Corporation funding. The c. C. C. Is a tool authorized by law to benefit our farmers and the thousands of church and Community Food banks that it helps to fund, no matter which party is in the white house. The only folks that suffer when any administration is not allowed to use the c. C. C. At its discretion are our ag producers and American Families. Our farmers benefited tremendously under the Trump Administration when the secretary of agriculture used the c. C. C. To give our farmers relief from the trade wars with china. As i look at it, the path this bill has taken so far and how the proposed amendments that we will see tonight would make it even worse. I ask myself for any farmers that are watching tonight who are trying to do whats best for their land, for their businesses and their family, what will they see . For people in rural p communities facing challenges with providing clean water, utilities . What will sthai they see, for the same communities trying to ensure their Law Enforcement and First Responders have the vehicle, the communication equipment and other resources they need to keep their Rural Communities safe . What will they see . For struggling families trying to put food on the table for their children. What will they see . Sadly, if those americans are watching us tonight, what they will see is a majority which is focused on overriding medical science to take away a womans freedom to control her own Reproductive Health choices, but not a majority focused on ensuring that those women and their children are able to afford food. They will see a majority that is focused on an undefined socalled Critical Race Theory while pushing this bill to jeopardize the safety of our food and medicine. Slowing down our supply chain and ironically making these things harder to get and more expensive to buy. Make no mistake, the majority will have would have a person who is watching at home to believe that this bill fights against some undeserving citizens who dont need the help. But the hard truth is that this bill is a nuclear bomb against the needs of every single american. The majority wants the people to be distracted by their culture war while they cut the crucial programs that every american depends on for the safest, the highest quality, the affordable food and fiber and medicine in the world. And it appears that tonight, we will see more amendments from the majority that further pushed the bill in a terribly harmful direction. It astonishes me that we are four days away from a Government Shutdown, yet were not debating a bipartisan bill to keep the government open. Instead, we are debating an extreme messaging bill that does nothing to bring us closer to the bipartisan agreement we will need to eventually pass a fullyear Government Spending bill. I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill. I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to craft a responsible bill which meets the needs of all americans. Id like to thank my personal staff including tanisha boomer and the subcommittee staff including martha foley, alex wan and tyler cole for their work on this bill. Id like to thank the majority staff for their efforts but i pray the majority members of congress and the majority of congress will have an epiphanny and deliver a much better work product to the American People by the end of this funding process. I yield back i reserve, rather, the balance of my time. The chair the gentleman from georgia reserves. The gentleman from maryland is recognized. Mr. Harris thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Whats really harmful is a 2 trillion deficit, not the legislation before us. I yield to the gentleman from ohio, mr. Miller. The chair the gentleman is recognized. For one minute. Mr. Miller i thank my colleague. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I rise today to support a vital amendment included in the en bloc amendment to foster rural skills training