Ag Committee Republicans Stress the Negative Impact of Federal Regs on Production Agriculture & Rural Economies

Press Release

Today, Republican members of the Agriculture Committee, led by Chairman Frank Lucas, spoke on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in support of H. Res. 72, a resolution that instructs various committees to investigate existing, pending, and proposed regulations that hurt job creation and economic growth. Members of the committee addressed the many regulatory burdens farmers, ranchers, and small business owners are facing in rural America.

Below is an excerpt from their remarks.

"The current administration has spent the last two years piling on regulation after regulation that make it more difficult for small businesses and family farms to grow and create jobs."
- Rep. Austin Scott

"From the dairies in Vermont, to the wheat fields near the Chesapeake Bay, to the corn farms in the Midwest, American agriculture is under a constant barrage of irrational and unworkable regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency, which are burdensome, overreaching, and that negatively affect jobs and rural economies." - Chairman Frank Lucas.

"None of these usurpations of authority are authorized by the Congress, and all these serve to add dramatically to the cost of doing business and reduce America's ability to feed our nation and help feed the world. This bill starts the process of restoration of legislative powers and upholding our fundamental constitutional values and obligations to represent people rather than allowing people who are never elected to run our public policy." - Rep. Timothy V. Johnson

"The intent of Congress and Dodd-Frank was not to manage individual risk on behalf of market participants, but rather to mitigate those broad systemic risks that threaten the entire financial system. Yet, the Commission is currently headed down a path that extends well beyond the statutory requirements of Dodd-Frank and is attempting, at the request of no one, to micro-manage individual risk across all industries and sectors. We owe it to the American public to ensure the assorted regulatory schemes carried out by the federal government work to promote economic growth, competitiveness, and innovation." - Rep. K. Michael Conaway

"There are many examples of actions undertaken by Obama's EPA, which defy sound science, good judgment and will only result in putting America's farmers and ranchers out of business." - Rep. Jean Schmidt

"The EPA's onerous regulatory burdens will have devastating economic impacts on the 5th District and rural communities across America. Small towns, rural farms and ranches will be forced to meet arbitrary requirements and be punished for the federal government's unwillingness to recognize the environmental gains from voluntary conservation practices at the state and local levels. We must act to remove the cloud of uncertainty this administration's burdensome requirements have cast over rural America, and build on the practices and knowledge of local communities to strengthen American agriculture."
- Rep. Glenn "GT' Thompson

"GIPSA's proposed rule governing livestock and poultry marketing practices will have costly, unintended consequences for our nation's livestock producers, leading to higher consumer prices, lower producer income and reduced competitiveness. Members of both parties have raised questions about the scope, process, and intent of this rulemaking, which was not even accompanied by a cost-benefit analysis. USDA must reconsider this proposed rule."
- Rep. Thomas J. Rooney

"Environmental Protection Agency's Boiler MACT ruling would lead to the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs. This ruling is only one in a long line of troubling rule-making decisions by the EPA and other federal agencies. We cannot continue to be faced with regulations that are not consistent, that overly impede on particular industries, discourage innovation, and eliminate jobs and businesses. I look forward to Congress exerting their oversight power and to reign in the federal agencies." - Rep. Martha Roby

"I came to Washington to bring some common sense to a city sorely lacking it. We have too many regulations being written by bureaucrats who have no idea what the real world is like. I welcome the opportunity this resolution provides for us to bring these regulators in and give them a picture of what life is in the world outside the beltway." - Rep. Tim Huelskamp

"To get our economy moving and creating jobs again we need to eliminate the impediments to growth. The simple fact is federal regulations have increased the cost of doing business and destroyed jobs. That is something small business owners and farmers have told me again and again as I have traveled across the 20th District. A prime example of this is a proposed EPA regulation that would treat spilled milk like spilled oil -- thereby incurring an additional cost burden on dairy farmers, which decreases profitability and makes them less likely to expand." - Rep. Christopher Gibson

"The USDA has departed from the long-standing science based coordinated framework between the USDA, EPA, and FDA that has been accepted throughout the world. By altering the process through using a rules approach, rather than science, this could have a significant negative impact on trade." - Rep. Randy Hultgren

"The EPA is advancing numerous proposals that are harmful to agriculture. One rule wants to regulate dust on our farms. They call it "air quality.' Where I'm from it's called "living in the country.' In case the bureaucrats in Washington haven't heard, driving on a gravel road and planting seeds in the soil makes dust! We don't need Washington to regulate dust. We need common sense." - Rep. Vicky Hartzler