Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. BISHOP of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I support passage of this six- bill package, including the section on Agriculture-Rural Development- FDA.

The ag bill affects the lives of every single American--rural, urban, and suburban--every single day and ensures that Americans have access to abundant, safe, and affordable food, fiber, medicine, and medical devices.

The bill takes care of our families, helps prevent hunger, and fully funds SNAP as well as WIC. The bill is free from almost all the extreme policy riders in the previous versions, and it rejects interference with Americans' healthcare and reproductive freedom, as well as attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion training.

It protects the Secretary of Agriculture's authority to use the CCC, and it blocks cuts to distressed Farm Service Agency borrowers to help the farmers who feed our country.

It rejects severe cuts to rural electric co-ops and the REAP program, which helps rural businesses save on energy costs and helps make rural energy grids more sustainable and resilient.

It protects small meat and poultry producers and promotes industry competition to reduce the cost of food.

It makes crucial investments in rural housing and rental assistance as well as the Food Safety and Inspection Service.

While the bill is not the best, it brings us closer than the earlier versions to meeting the essential needs of the American people.

I commend President Biden and the bipartisan leadership and staff of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, and I urge my colleagues to support the bill.

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