Harris Remarks at FY26 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration Bill Full Committee Markup
Thank you, Chairman Cole, and I want to commend your leadership as we get the FY26 appropriations process underway. I also want to recognize the Ranking Member of the Full Committee, Ms. DeLauro, and the Subcommittee Ranking Member, Mr. Bishop, for their work in getting us to this point. I appreciate the conversations Mr. Bishop, and I have had, and while I know we don’t agree on everything in the bill, we do agree on the importance of the agencies and programs this bill funds.
For FY26, the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Subcommittee’s discretionary allocation is $25.5 billion - a $1.1 billion, or 4.2 percent, decrease from FY25 enacted levels. In a setting of ongoing $2 trillion deficits, that modest constraint is necessary.
This legislation reflects a clear, conservative commitment to fiscal responsibility, while ensuring that America’s farmers, ranchers, and rural communities remain a top priority, and that all Americans have access to a safe food and drug supply.
At the same time, this legislation turns the page on the disastrous four years of the Biden Administration. By rooting out wasteful spending, reducing the Federal bureaucracy, and incorporating efficiencies that DOGE has identified, this bill sets USDA on a responsible and sustainable spending path that will make the Department and our Nation stronger.
Under the Biden Administration, core USDA services suffered. This includes the failure to effectively deliver disaster aid to farmers, delays in administering basic grant programs, and catastrophic food shortages in tribal and elderly communities resulting from poor decision making and a lack of interest by top USDA leadership.
The previous Administration instead focused its efforts on implementing unconstitutional loan forgiveness programs, incorporating the woke agenda into grants and programs across USDA, writing regulations that made it harder for producers to earn a living, and pushing billions of unauthorized funds out the door for climate-change projects.
The Biden Administration did much of this while using the so-called Inflation Reduction Act monies and leftover COVID-era funds. These funds, which were meant to be one-time emergency measures, were used by the prior Administration to hire new, permanent staff and expand the woke Federal bureaucracy. Secretary Vilsack was betting, of course, that no one would subsequently shrink that bureaucracy, even when those one-time funds were gone.
I applaud Secretary Rollins for putting an end to this madness. It’s long overdue that COVID-era programs end, and returning the workforce to pre-COVID levels is just common sense. It is far better to have fewer employees who show up to work full-time versus a sprawling remote workforce that failed time and again to perform basic duties.
I would like to highlight a few areas where this legislation supports the Administration’s efforts to refocus the Department on its core mission by prioritizing essential functions in a fiscally responsible manner.
The bill provides $1.15 billion for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to support the Department’s efforts to protect our producers from High-Path Avian Influenza, New World Screwworm, and other foreign plant and animal diseases.
The legislation continues to invest in the delivery of farm programs, disaster assistance, and crop insurance to farmers by prioritizing funding for farmer-facing functions, including the Farm Service Agency and the Risk Management Agency.
The bill provides $7.6 billion for WIC – the same level as last year – and rescinds $100 million from significant leftover balances that were unspent from that level of funding. That leaves hundreds of millions of dollars in carryover balances remaining. Any talk of this bill cutting the WIC program denies the simple math of carryover provisions. Our bill also makes a modest 10 percent reduction in the hugely inflated WIC Cash Value Voucher to begin a reset to pre-COVID levels. The cash value vouchers remain at a level at least twice pre-COVID levels. Although COVID is over, over $2 trillion COVID budget deficits remain and must be dealt with.
The bill makes important investments in critical agricultural research that will keep our producers on the cutting-edge of technology and production practices. We maintain funding for USDA’s flagship competitive grant program, the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, and protect capacity funding for our land-grant universities to ensure our farmers and ag workforce remain competitive with China.
This legislation continues to fund Rural Development programs, including critical infrastructure investments in water and wastewater systems, broadband, and additional investments in certain rural housing programs. The bill includes $90 million for ReConnect to complement existing funds to deploy broadband to the most underserved areas.
For the Food and Drug Administration, the bill provides $3.2 billion in direct appropriations, and with increased user fees, FDA has a total budget of $6.8 billion to enable the agency to keep food, drugs, and medical devices safe and effective.
On the regulatory and policy fronts, this legislation withdraws harmful Biden-era costly regulations that attempt to dictate how poultry and livestock producers raise and market their animals.
It continues to build on efforts to prevent the purchase of farmland by China and our foreign adversaries by having the Secretary of Agriculture serve on CFIUS, the Committee on Foreign Investment, in the United States for agricultural transactions.
This bill closes the hemp loophole from the 2018 Farm Bill that has resulted in the proliferation of intoxicating cannabinoid products, including Delta-8 and hemp flower, being sold online and in gas stations nationwide under the false guise of being “USDA-approved.” As many States have stepped in to curb these dangerous products from reaching consumers, particularly children, it’s time for Congress to act to close this loophole while protecting the industrial hemp industry. Reports that the included language would destroy legitimate businesses are simply not true – and that is clear to anyone closely reading the carefully drafted language that threaded the needle.
The bill also prioritizes the health and nutritional needs of SNAP recipients by codifying USDA’s authority to grant waivers to States to restrict unhealthy food purchases with SNAP benefits. We have witnessed both red and blue States submitting waiver proposals to USDA that will help make America healthy again by ensuring increased taxpayer funded SNAP benefits are being used to purchase healthy foods. In a setting of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension in our SNAP food recipients this makes sense.
The bill also directs the Secretary to conduct a feasibility study of a Buy American requirement in SNAP. American producers grow and raise all the food we need for healthy diets. This could be a tremendous boost to American farmers and ranchers if SNAP dollars are used to only purchase American-grown and American-made products. This Buy America program can help expand our specialty crop programs and help mitigate our growing agriculture trade deficit.
Times have changed at the Department of Agriculture. This bill puts the disastrous policies of the Biden Administration behind us. Under President Trump and Secretary Rollins’ leadership, every taxpayer dollar will be spent in the pursuit of putting American farmers and ranchers first. This bill follows their example in providing the support and resources American farmers deserve while reducing our burgeoning Federal deficit. As I have said before, we are not appropriating Monopoly money – it’s hard-earned taxpayer dollars, and sometimes tough decisions have to be made. In an era of unrelenting $2 trillion deficits, fiscal restraint has to start, and it has to start now. This bill reflects that sobering reality.
In conclusion, I want to thank the staff on the Subcommittee for their efforts – Pam Miller, Elizabeth Dent, Judd Gardner, Nick Seelinger, Sykes Connell, and Kelly Bogle as well as Martha Foley, Alex Swann, and Tyler Coe on the minority staff.
I look forward to working with all of you as the bill moves forward, and I ask for your support for this legislation. Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
