Ranking Member Bishop Remarks at Fiscal Year 2026 U.S. Department of Agriculture Budget Hearing
WASHINGTON — Congressman Sanford Bishop (D-GA-02), Ranking Member of the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, delivered the following remarks at the subcommittee’s fiscal year 2026 budget hearing for the U.S. Department of Agriculture:
-As Prepared For Delivery-
It is good to have you here, Secretary Rollins.
I recognize that you have been very busy and have had some key accomplishments such as rolling out Congressional directives – including much-awaited economic assistance for farmers and dealing with the Texas water issue.
I want to thank you for coming before this committee today because I am concerned that this administration is operating outside the rule of law.
Pursuant to its Article I Constitutional authority, Congress has passed laws establishing a process to repurpose funding and a process to conduct a legal reduction in force.
Yet, this administration has refused to follow the law and is in the process of dismembering the federal government – in every single Department – with no authority to do so.
We see what is happening with the Department of Education, FEMA, HHS, and today we’re talking about agriculture. No Fortune 500 CEO worth their salt would put the cart before the horse and fire huge swaths of their employees, and then try to figure out if there were enough people left to meet the company’s needs and serve its customers.
Yet, that is what USDA and every other federal agency has done or is doing.
Did we thoughtlessly fire people working on bird flu? Oops!
Recklessly fire those who protect our nuclear stockpile? Oops!
My colleague, Chairman Andy Harris, and I both believe that good Congressional oversight means fighting fraud, waste, and abuse.
Yet, President Trump fired the person at USDA responsible for going after fraud, waste, and abuse – the USDA Inspector General – with no justification and had her escorted from her office.
As you know, in the March continuing resolution, House and Senate Republicans required USDA to provide this Committee with a detailed plan showing how the Department will spend taxpayer dollars. The two-page document we received last week—late, I might add—did not show any level of detail and fails to meet that legal obligation. That is a slap in the face to the Republican Majorities in the House and Senate who included that requirement in the CR. Your decision to violate this requirement demonstrates that you feel no accountability to this Committee, but more importantly it shows you feel no responsibility to the American taxpayers that we represent for how you are spending their money.
The lack of detail quite honestly makes me wonder: what are you hiding?
That’s why we need hearings like this, to set the record straight. For example, your testimony insinuates that NASS, under the Biden administration, frivolously cancelled the July Cattle and County Estimates surveys last year.
But the fact is that the cancellation was due to an insufficient funding level in the FY2024 bill, done at the direction of Republicans on this committee, something to which my staff and I repeatedly objected. House Republicans did not enact a final appropriation until halfway through the fiscal year, a result of Speaker Johnson’s reluctance to negotiate on a topline. This is what happens when Congress underfunds or withholds funds from USDA: critical functions get cancelled.
When our constituents have questions, we must get answers from you, and I would imagine that my Republican colleagues – as good representatives in this co-equal branch of government – feel the same.
My constituents say that USDA is understaffed. My constituents – including entire school districts, a healthcare system, and many farmers – also say that they are hurting from the cancellation of the local food agreements and from frozen funding.
The Local Food Purchasing Agreements awarded over $900 million to all 50 states, DC, four territories, and 84 tribes. The Local Food for Schools program awarded $200 million in funds to 42 states and DC.
Georgia has the fifth largest school nutrition program in America. The cancellation of the Local Food for Schools program and USDA’s decision not to fund the Farm to School grant program this year has hurt over 80 Georgia school districts. Their ability to feed schoolkids has been severely stunted and our farmers have lost a valuable market.
My constituents say that President Trump is causing uncertainty. Uncertainty as farmers wait for promised funding. I hear that farmers and small businesses are still waiting for their EQIP grants and their REAP grants.
Funds for rural broadband, funds for agricultural research, and funds for other programs are still frozen and people are still waiting. Uncertainty as USDA’s priorities change. Uncertainty compounded by the lack of a Farm Bill. Uncertainty as tariff announcements yo-yo back and forth.
That uncertainty feeds fear, which is pitting farmers against families. This does not have to be a zero-sum game. I am hopeful the Chairman and I can work together to address all of these concerns and uncertainty.
Secretary Rollins, I would like to hear from you today how you intend to work with this Committee and with Congress to do that.
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