150th Anniversary of USDA

Floor Speech

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, today, I would like to recognize what Abraham Lincoln referred to as ``the people's department''--the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

On this day 150 years ago, President Lincoln signed legislation to create the U.S. Department of Agriculture. At the beginning, USDA's focus was on agriculture research, farming techniques, and keeping statistics. Today, more than ever, the USDA is ``the people's department.'' The USDA covers a broad range of issues that touch people's lives, from soil and water conservation to the school lunch program and from agriculture trade to expanding rural broadband services.

Through the efforts of USDA over the past 150 years, agriculture has become one of the most successful sectors in the U.S. economy. Agriculture accounts for 1 in 12 American jobs and provides our country with 86 percent of the food we consume. In 2011, agriculture trade set records by exporting nearly $140 billion in U.S. farm exports.

The USDA has worked to develop rural communities, conserve the environment, and ensure that people across the country have access to safe and healthy food choices. In rural communities, USDA has given money to improve health care facilities, grants to assist families purchase or refinance homes, and investments to secure broadband services. USDA has worked to protect critical wetlands habitats, National Forests, and water and soil. And USDA ensures the health and safety of Americans by providing nutrition assistance through SNAP payments, reforming the school lunch program, and adopting tougher standards for E. coli and Salmonella in animal production.

Illinois has played a large part in the evolution of agriculture policy. President Lincoln gained his respect for agriculture from his time spent on farms and in rural communities around the state of Illinois as well as in Kentucky and Indiana. The same year President Lincoln began USDA, he also signed into law the Homestead Act and the Morrill Land Grant College Act. Illinois has also had two Secretaries of USDA--John Block, who served from 1981 until 1986, and Edward Madigan, who served from 1991 through 1993.

Over the past 150 years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has lived up to Lincoln's vision as a department for the people. I hope USDA continues its commitment to improve agriculture, nutrition, and rural communities around the country and across the globe in the Department's next 150 years.

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