Ranking Member Bishop Statement at Subcommittee Markup of 2026 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 Subcommittee's markup of the 2026 funding bill:

Thank you, Chairman Harris and good morning.

My colleagues have heard me say this before and I will say it again, I am always working to ensure that America produces the highest quality, most affordable, most abundant food, fiber, and medicine. Unfortunately, this bill is not up to the task.

While our country continues to grow, our support for women, infants, and children continues to shrink. This bill follows the Administration’s lead, and it cuts $100 million in WIC funds, hurting our most vulnerable as the cost of food continues to rise.

The cost of housing continues to rise across the country, and rural communities are not exempt, yet this bill cuts $1.8 billion in rural housing programs, hurting rural America. Affordable housing is a cornerstone of every American’s quality of life. It is a big part of the American Dream, yet this bill makes it harder for Americans to achieve the dream!

Talking about being able to provide for and afford basic needs, this bill cuts $44 million in grants for water and waste projects. These projects often have large capital costs, and small towns in rural America do not have the ratepayer base to cover those costs. Without these federal grants they are put between a rock and a hard place to pay for the project by either slapping residents with huge utility bills or cutting other essential services – like law enforcement or garbage collection or paving roads.

We already know there is a digital divide when it comes to rural communities and access to affordable broadband internet. Yet this bill not only fails to increase the investments in rural broadband necessary to close the gap but also eliminates grants for distance learning, telemedicine, and other broadband projects in rural communities.

I continue to hear from my constituents about staffing shortages – whether it is at the Farm Service Agency or the Natural Resources Conservation Service or at Rural Development – and I know they are not alone.

This bill makes a 9 percent, $109 million cut to FSA, a $46 million, 13 percent cut to Rural Development staffing at a time when farmers are already showing up to county offices that are understaffed or totally empty, a result of the mass exodus of the experienced personnel who help farmers with everything from disaster relief, to home loans, to grants to improve their farm operations.

This bill slashes funding for NRCS Conservation Operations by 5 percent. This is a program that helps America’s farmers, ranchers, and other private landowners conserve and protect their land. It completely eliminates the Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production Program which undermines our ability to grow more food close to the people who consume it across America!

We continue to see a retreat from America’s leadership on the world stage and part of that is the demolition of the Food for Peace program, cutting funding by $788 million which would make it the lowest funding level for the program since 2002. Meanwhile, the administration continues to illegally dismantle USAID and keep food from reaching those in need around the world. I want to remind my colleagues that this eliminates an important market for America’s agriculture producers and undermines a powerful part of our diplomatic and economic arsenal.

The bill also cuts the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)’s by $30 million, which will undermine their ability to go after cybercriminals and secure the global derivative markets on which American producers rely.

Americans are already concerned about the role that sound-science will play in our public health and safety policy. We need to embrace transparency, and the FDA should be able to effectively and quickly share information. It needs the resources to do this, but the bill before us today cuts over $320 million from the FDA.

Finally, I am extremely concerned about language in the report that directs states to share personally identifiable information of those who use SNAP with USDA. We cannot compromise people’s privacy simply because they participate in this program.

This bill increases costs for rural America by cutting crucial investments in housing, water, and energy programs that help families, and small businesses, and rural communities save money and thrive. It retreats from nutrition programs that help the most vulnerable afford healthy food and at the same time engage America’s ag producers in our country’s effort to fight hunger.

In its current form, I cannot support the bill, but I am hopeful that my colleagues – on both sides of the aisle – will put aside partisanship and come together to provide adequate resources for all of the stakeholders of USDA, rural communities, and our federal administration. I would love for us to produce a bill that works for the American people. I cannot support this bill in its current form, and I urge us to do better.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I yield back.

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