House Ag Committee – AG INFORMATION NETWORK OF THE WEST

House Ag Committee

The House Agriculture Committee passed a resolution designating July National Blueberry month.

The designation passed unanimously but some committee members expressed frustration that instead of passing a resolution for a month that has passed, they should be working on a whole host of pressing issues.

Ranking member Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa. laid out his frustrations to Chairman David Scott of Georgia.

“We have a farm bill that we should have started doing hearings on 18 months ago. We have a food supply chain disruption that we all lived through in 2020 and it’s continuing into 2021. We need to learn from that and build resiliency. We’ve got livestock issues, we’ve got threats of African Swine virus. We’re surrounded by these threats to rural America and to our ability to provide food and fiber for ourselves.”

Thompson finished by adding, “And I am sorry Mr. Chairman, but I cannot understand why instead of dealing with ASF, wildfires, drought, or mandatory price reporting, we are trying to earn respect for the blueberry.”

Thompson noted disdain for the missing details on a 28 billion dollar conservation package that the committee must decide whether to send to the whole house for consideration.

South Dakota Congressman Dusty Johnson was outraged that days remain before the Livestock Mandatory Price Reporting Rule expires and that was not on the agenda.