Harris Remarks at Oversight Hearing On U.S. Department of Agriculture, Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs
I want to welcome everyone to this oversight hearing with USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service. We are pleased to be joined by the Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, Luke Lindberg. Mr. Lindberg, welcome to the Subcommittee. I look forward to hearing about your priorities for the coming year and the work that USDA is doing to promote trade and open new markets for U.S. commodities.
With nearly 100 overseas offices covering more than 180 countries, the Foreign Agricultural Service acts as the voice for American agriculture on the world stage. You provide on-the-ground support to U.S. agricultural interests, identify and open new markets for American products, help negotiate trade deals, analyze market conditions, cut through red tape to reduce barriers to exports, and navigate international standards on behalf of our farmers. In a time when our nation’s producers are still suffering from the disastrous policies of the last administration, facing record-high input costs and unprecedented pressures from labor shortages, severe weather, pests, and disease, what you do is more important than ever. Your agency’s work is a critical – and often overlooked – piece of the farm economy.
As you and Secretary Rollins seek to address the nearly $50 billion Biden-era agricultural trade deficit, I applaud your work in setting an America First trade policy and working aggressively to expand market access and enhance the global competitiveness of American products. Already, you’ve launched the America First Trade Promotion Program, expanded financing options under the Export Credit Guarantee Program, and negotiated historic trade deals – and you were only confirmed in August. As the Subcommittee that champions American agriculture and our nation’s farmers, I think we’re all looking forward to hearing what comes next.
In addition to trade opportunities, I’d like an update on the Inter-Agency Agreement moving administration of the Food for Peace program to USDA. As experts in commodity procurement and given your successful implementation of the Food for Progress and McGovern-Dole Food for Education programs, it makes sense that Food for Peace should be implemented by USDA.
It’s been just over two months since the agreement between USDA and the State Department was signed, and already you’ve announced your plan to spend $452 million to purchase 211,000 metric tons of American-grown commodities, which will be shipped abroad on American-flagged vessels to feed those in need overseas. I was pleased to see this critical first step taken so quickly, and I hope you plan to move expeditiously to get the remainder of the fiscal year 2025 balances and the entirety of the $1.2 billion this Subcommittee provided for fiscal year 2026 out the door very soon.
Mr. Lindberg, as you work to advance America First trade policy on the world stage, I hope this Subcommittee can be a valuable and active partner. Again, I appreciate you being with us and look forward to today’s discussion. I’ll now turn to my colleague, Ranking Member Bishop, for his opening remarks.
