Ranking Member Bishop Statement at the Full Committee Markup of the 2025 Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA Funding Bill

Congressman Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. (D-GA-02), Ranking Member of the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, delivered the following remarks at the Appropriations Committee's markup of the fiscal year 2025 bill:

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Chairman Cole, Ranking Member DeLauro, and Subcommittee Chairman Harris, the majority staff as well as the Democratic staff, let me thank you all for your hard work in preparing this bill for markup here today.

As I said in the subcommittee markup, I appreciate the efforts and the trajectory of the FY25 bill compared to last year’s bill. However, I remain very, very disappointed that, for the second year in a row, the bill contains poison pill riders – like the prohibitions on hiring and training for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility or flying flags over federal buildings – and it contains such severe cuts to Rural America.

As the Ranking Member of the Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA, and Related Agencies Subcommittee – I cannot vote against the interest of American families, farmers, and rural communities by supporting the bill before us today.

Both sides of the aisle agreed to the Fiscal Responsibility Act funding levels. In fact, the Senate will use these bipartisan funding levels in the Agriculture Appropriations bill that they will mark up tomorrow.

However, this FY25 funding bill before our committee today reneges on that agreement.

For 2025, the bill provides $25.9 billion – nearly 4% below 2024. This does not meet the needs of today. Farmers are selling off land, lenders are turning away established producers, and food insecurity is at the highest level in more than a decade. America deserves better, and we can do better.

The Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies funding bill impacts every single American every single day. This bill is responsible for our nation’s safe food supply, access to cutting edge research, future farmers and agriculturalists, resilient farmland, and strong rural communities.

We should ensure that the USDA, FDA, CFTC, and other agencies have the resources needed to continue to providing America with the highest quality, the safest, the most abundant, and the most affordable food and fiber, medicine and medical devices anywhere in the world.

We should not hamstring their ability to do their jobs. Yet, this bill forces the USDA to choose between programs and the people administering those programs.

We already asked USDA to cut into their program funds to pay their staff last year and the majority has this same song stuck on “repeat” this year.

Mandatory pay raises with no funding also means the agencies are forced to hire fewer staff to serve farmers and families. It means that they cannot even provide today’s services tomorrow because they will have fewer resources for the upcoming fiscal year.

For example, our farmers rely on the Farm Service Agency as a key resource. Yet this bill cuts FSA salaries and expenses at a time when our farmers need their help the most.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) oversees a multi-trillion-dollar global derivatives market upon which American producers rely. The agency faces threats from foreign and domestic cybercriminals who seek to disrupt markets at a time of increasing uncertainty for American farmers and businesses. A cyber breach at CFTC would be nothing less than catastrophic for the global financial system. Yet, this bill guts their staff resources.

While our domestic nutrition programs are better off with this bill than last year’s proposal, the USDA staff implementing the nutrition programs are being cut by 21 percent!

Unfortunately, the areas where we find bipartisan agreement in the bill are overshadowed and even the programs maintained at a reasonable funding level are propped up by deep funding cuts, which would hit hardest those most who are most disadvantaged at home and abroad.

We cannot rob Peter to pay Paul by cutting basic needs for rural Americans like water and housing or by killing services upon which our farmers rely.

Everyone must have clean, reliably accessible, and affordable water. Rural America recognizes the challenge it can be to provide access to clean water, especially with low ratepayer and taxpayer base in our rural communities. However, this bill cuts rural water funding for the second year in a row, reducing the USDA’s water and wastewater programs by $99 million below last year.

The majority is also cutting the technical assistance for water and waste programs – which means that the most vulnerable cities and towns across rural America will have much lower capability to apply for federal resources to “get the lead out” of their drinking water. Oklahoma would be most impacted by the decrease, with over $20 million going to help distressed local governments last fiscal year.

For the second year in a row, the majority has cut funding for the Rural Housing Assistance Grants program. This program provides grants to help low- and “very” low-income rural residents remove health and safety hazards from their homes. Last year, it was cut by 27 percent. Unfortunately, this year, this bill cuts the program by 40 percent!

That means 300 low and very low-income seniors in Michigan will be unable to repair their homes for their health and safety. In Kentucky, 300 seniors will be unable to stay in their own homes; in Alabama, 250 seniors; and in Tennessee, 230 seniors.

The majority is also cutting the Value-Added Producers Grant program to the lowest point in over twenty years.

Mr. Chairman, America can’t afford to lose any more farms. At a time when so many of our farmers are struggling to stay in business, why would you want to destroy such an important resource for our agriculture producers?

Last year, the majority forced cuts to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, and this hurt our farmers’ and ranchers’ ability to compete in a challenging market. The FY25 bill continues to underfund NASS, and I have an amendment at the desk to address this.

The data collected by NASS is also used by the Economic Research Service to produce farm income forecasts and other farm business reports. This bill cuts funds to ERS for the second year in a row.

I’ve heard from farmers and families in my district all year long and they are hurting. They are really, really hurting.

They are working to sustain their businesses and to keep feeding you, me, and everyone in this room, their communities, and every single American who eats.

Unfortunately, this bill is anemic at best and hurtful to them at worst.

It continues to underfund vital programs and underpay staff, and it is weighed down by caustic culture war policy riders like marriage discrimination and critical race theory that don’t have anything to do with rural water, rural housing, food safety, child nutrition, or any of the programs that Americans need to thrive.

As we debate this bill and work to improve it, we must make the necessary investments.

Again, we cannot rob Peter to pay Paul. And we definitely cannot fund 21st century agriculture needs with 20th century funding levels.

So, I look forward to coming together with the members of this Committee and our colleagues in the House to craft a true bipartisan bill that will fully meet the needs of all Americans and that will reject partisan riders which will divide us and distract us from faithfully discharging our trusted responsibilities as appropriators.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I look forward to working with you, and I yield back.

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