00:01Now I'll recognize the gentleman from Massachusetts, Mr. McGovern, for five minutes.
00:04Thank you. Madam Secretary, I have to be honest, I'm deeply troubled by what this
00:09administration and this Congress are doing to so many programs that help vulnerable people
00:15and small farms. You know, we live in the richest country in the history of the world.
00:18We have 47 million Americans who are hungry or food insecure. It is, that's a scandal.
00:25And hunger is getting worse under this administration.
00:28We actually spent a few years developing a roadmap for ending hunger in this country.
00:32The Biden-Harris administration hosted the second ever bipartisan White House conference
00:37on hunger, nutrition, and health. And out of it came a national strategy that called upon
00:41every sector of society to do their part to end hunger once and for all.
00:45And now Congressional Republicans are cutting food programs indiscriminately with apparent
00:50support from the Trump administration. I mean, the administration has already taken $500 million
00:55away from food banks. And President Trump's budget goes after WIC, slashing the food budgets
01:00of pregnant women, breastfeeding moms, and young kids. Meanwhile, your department has cut farmer
01:06programs too, like the local food for schools program, local food purchase assistance program,
01:12and the Leahy Farm to School program. Your department has frozen funds obligated to farmers, canceled
01:17signed contracts, and purged career staff who work directly with our farmers. And internationally,
01:24this administration is torching our global food security programs, like Food for Peace and
01:28the McGovern-Dole Food for Education and Child Nutrition program. They're both eliminated in
01:33the White House budget. You said that food security is national security. It's mind-boggling that
01:40the administration would cut those programs. And China is filling the void. The bottom line
01:46is that these cuts are hurting people. They're hurting consumers, hungry people, our local
01:52economy, and hurting our farmers. And so, Madam Secretary, I'd urge you to read the national
01:56strategy that came out of the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health.
02:00And I hope I can persuade you to make meaningfully combating hunger a priority, because things are
02:06going in the wrong direction. But today, I need to talk about what small farmers in my state
02:11of Massachusetts are up against. We've been losing family farms in America over the last
02:1650 years. And there are a lot of reasons for it, and it's complicated. But what should not
02:20be complicated is whether USDA has a responsibility to do something, to try to stop it. Over the
02:26years, we've heard from Secretaries of Agriculture, like Earl Butts, who said to farmers, get big
02:31or get out. Or your predecessor, Sonny Perdue, who said, quote, in America, get big. In America,
02:37the big get bigger and the small go out. I couldn't believe he said that. I guess a simple
02:41yes or no question. Do you agree with that characterization?
02:47No, sir, I do not agree with that. And in fact, we rolled out a significant small family farm
02:52program three weeks ago across the board, ensuring that these farmers can survive and thrive like never before.
02:59Well, let me just, you know, I'm relieved to hear you say that you don't share that philosophy, because right now, small farmers in New England are counting on you, right?
03:06Appropriations Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro and I teamed up at the end of last year to craft a disaster
03:11supplemental package specifically targeted to help small specialty crop farmers in our region,
03:16plus Alaska and Hawaii, who need to be made whole after catastrophic infrastructure and crop losses
03:22in the last few years. We've had unprecedented floods, freezes, and storms, and our farmers are
03:27at risk of losing everything. The modern farm safety net does not catch them. It was woven for farms
03:34that are much bigger or only grow a few crops. Traditional diversified operations,
03:39meaning local fruit and veggie farms that feed their communities, do not have any safety net
03:45because the federal government has never adequately created one for them. When disaster strikes,
03:50they're on their own. That's why we created this Farm Recovery and Support Block Grant to
03:54finally change that. I'm terribly concerned right now with how your department has been making decisions about
04:00the rollout of the program so far. And I hope that you'd agree that farmers are not bureaucrats
04:05or politicians in Washington should be deciding on which disaster relief programs best meet their needs.
04:12I know there's ongoing conversations between State Agriculture Commissioners and the department,
04:16but I'd urge you to listen to the Ag Commissioners. And I would just ask you that, you know,
04:21this is not a trick question. I hope, I wish you, will you commit to working with us
04:26and our State Agriculture Commissioners to make sure that we don't leave our small farmers behind?
04:31Because this is a really big concern in Massachusetts and throughout New England.
04:35Yes, sir. And I've had multiple conversations with Congresswoman DeLauro and your Ag Commissioners.
04:40We've met with your state eight different times on this, and we'll be rolling that out very, very quickly.
04:46Yeah, I think there's a concern based on some of these conversations that the USDA is not quite understanding the uniqueness of some of these smalls in New England.
04:56And a lot of them are afraid that they will not qualify for any relief.
05:01And again, we passed this in the supplemental bill, we put in the supplemental bill to address these needs of these small farmers.
05:08Yes, sir.
05:09The gentleman yields back. Now recognized gentleman from California, Mr. LaMalfa, for five minutes.
05:17Thanks for joining us, Madam Secretary. Appreciate you being here, and we've got a lot to do.
