Ranking Member Bishop Statement at Subcommittee Markup of 2027 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 2027 funding bill:

Good morning and thank you, Dr. Harris. Before we begin, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge and to celebrate the life of our colleague, my friend of long standing, my agricultural comrade-in-arms, former House Agriculture Committee Chairman, and faithful member of our Georgia delegation: Representative David Scott, who passed away yesterday.

His unwavering commitment to public service and tireless work to improve rural communities, 1890 land-grant universities, and agriculture at large is greatly appreciated by the Committee and by people across the country. We will miss him dearly and my thoughts and prayers are with his family and his staff.

And Mr. Chairman, if… I would like to ask if we can have a moment of silence out of respect for Representative Scott. Thank you.

We’ll miss him and our thoughts and prayers are with his family and with his staff.

The Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA, and Related Agencies bill is of vital importance to farmers and rural communities across the nation. It also provides the resources that are necessary for America’s food and drug safety. It affects every single American, every single day.

Today, we gather to markup the Fiscal Year 2027 bill – a bill that is not as robust or constructive as I would prefer, but nonetheless, a good faith effort to meet the needs of agricultural producers and our rural neighbors.

Our subcommittee staff has worked under an unusually short time frame, given the very recent budget request from the President, and so I do want to take a moment to acknowledge Martha Foley, Pam Miller, Alex Swann, Marie Gualtieri – and all the work that has gone into last week’s hearing and into this bill as well.

I would also like to thank my personal staff, Tynesha Boomer and Haig Hovsepian, for their untiring efforts.

I am pleased, Dr. Harris, that this bill largely rejects the disastrous cuts and, in some cases, program eliminations put forth by the administration in their USDA budget request.

This bill does continue 2026 funding levels for all rural housing programs, maintains funding for low-income seniors in the Commodity Food Supplemental Program, and serves our strategic interests around the world by keeping Food for Peace and McGovern-Dole programs intact. The bill also provides sufficient funding for our school meals and flexibility for rural electric programming.

Is the bill perfect? Absolutely not.

The FY2027 bill before us today drastically cuts fruit and vegetable benefits for over 5 million hungry women, infants, and children and it reduces funding for emergency food assistance. It eliminates the Healthy Food Financing Initiative and fails to help school districts with the equipment needed to cook “real food”.

I am happy to work with Dr. Harris to make America healthy again by bringing these programs back.

This bill also cuts staff at the agencies that our farmers rely on most – the Farm Service Agency, Rural Development, and NRCS – during a period of economic crisis in farm country.

Water and wastewater grants are cut nearly in half for the smallest and poorest rural communities, which makes no sense. We still have rural neighbors living with clay pipes and without access to sewer service. Trust me, they are in my district and yours too.

Clean water and working wastewater systems are a basic human need, not a privilege. This critical infrastructure is a quality-of-life issue.

My colleagues across the aisle seemed obsessed with the border in November 2024 but will not provide the basic utilities that Texas border residents – American citizens – need.

Colonias often lack running water, have substandard housing, and rely on failing septic tanks. Yet, this bill cuts water and wastewater funding to these neighborhoods as well as Alaska and Hawai’i residents.

Unfortunately, rural broadband is cut by 20 percent, rural business development is cut by almost 30 percent, and rural energy programs are cut by 50 percent.

Rural America needs help now more than ever and I hope that we can improve this bill as the appropriations process continues.

I am also disappointed that the majority is once again offering caustic riders that have nothing to do with how our ag producers keep this country fed and clothed with the highest quality, the most abundant, the most affordable food and fiber in the world. In fact, these riders simply take the focus away from agriculture and distract us from the real issues.

Overall, I appreciate your solid effort, Dr. Harris, to work diligently and collaboratively on this bill and I look forward to our further discussion.

And with that, I yield back.