United States Grain Standards Act Reauthorization Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume, and rise today in support of H.R. 2088, the United States Grain Standards Act Reauthorization Act of 2015.

Mr. Speaker, for nearly 100 years, the United States Grain Standards Act has been the cornerstone of the vibrant grain trade, both domestically and internationally. This law is relied upon not only by exporters and domestic shippers but the entire U.S. agricultural sector.

The law establishes official marketing standards and procedures for the inspection and weighing of grains and oilseeds, and I would like to underscore the importance this law has played in establishing value and price-discovery in the grain and oilseed marketplace.

Many of the provisions in this current law are set to expire on September 30 of this year. A lapse in authorization would disrupt export weighing and grading services, imposing heavy burdens on farmers, merchants, traders, inspectors and, ultimately, consumers. We should not delay in passing this reauthorization.

I cannot emphasize enough: it is imperative that these inspections and weighing services are provided in a reliable, uninterrupted, consistent, and cost-effective manner. To ensure that we fulfill this obligation, we must provide a safeguard to ensure we avoid disruptions in service like the one that took place last year in Washington State.

The Washington State Department of Agriculture currently provides inspection and weighing services for grain intended for export at the Port of Vancouver. USDA's Federal Grain Inspection Service has delegated this responsibility to the Washington State Department of Agriculture. In the event that the Washington State Department of Agriculture cannot provide services for any reason, then the Federal Government, through FGIS inspectors, are statutorily required to step in and resume inspection and weighing services.

That is not what happened last summer. Amid an ongoing labor dispute, WSDA discontinued services. In statements issued at the time, WSDA, the State-based program, acknowledged they withheld inspection services because of their belief that ``the continued provision of inspection services appears to be unhelpful in leading to a foreseeable resolution'' of the labor dispute.

Instead of fulfilling their statutory obligation, the leadership of the USDA politicized this situation when the agency also declined to fulfill its statutory responsibility to resume inspection and grain and weighing services. Services were eventually restored, but not before significant costs accrued to all parties involved.

We have worked hard to gain access to overseas markets. We are shooting ourselves in the foot when we cannot ship our products to these markets because State and Federal agencies are unable or unwilling to comply with their obligations. The inability to ship our grain because there are no inspectors at a facility does a disservice to our farmers, and it harms our economy.

To address this situation, we could have been punitive. In fact, there were some who would have preferred that we do just that. But that is not what we have done and had no interest in doing. We simply want a safeguard mechanism to avoid this situation being repeated.

To do that, we worked with the State of Washington delegation, the Washington State Department of Agriculture, labor unions, the grain trade industry, and USDA. What we developed was a bipartisan consensus on a workable safeguard provision.

I am pleased with this work product, and I appreciate the help and support of Ranking Member Peterson, Subcommittee Chairman Crawford, and Subcommittee Ranking Member Walz, as well as Representatives from Washington State, both on and off the committee, for their advice and counsel as we developed this legislation.

H.R. 2088 provides a certainty to American agriculture, and I would urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this bill.

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Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleagues' comments, both the ranking member as well as the chairman of the subcommittee. We did work in a bipartisan manner. We worked out the differences of the bill, came up with a good work product. It is worthy of the system.

I would like to, again, emphasize, as my colleague from Arkansas did, we are actually getting this done ahead of time. These rules aren't out-of-date yet. And so I would encourage my colleagues in the Senate to follow our example and get it done quickly so we can get this to the President's desk. I urge support of the bill.

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