Calvin Dooley: “Mr. Chairman, this morning the President signed into law the Agricultural Research, Extension and Education Reform Act…”

“Mr. Chairman, this morning the President signed into law the Agricultural Research, Extension and Education Reform Act, which was passed by the House earlier this month by a vote of 364-50. This was an exciting event for myself and my colleagues on the Committee on Agriculture who have worked for over a year to develop a comprehensive agricultural research system. One of the most important provisions of this new law is the initiative for Future Agriculture and Food Systems. This new program is intended to provide Federal research dollars to be awarded on a competitive basis to address emerging issues, including agricultural genome, food safety, food technology and human nutrition, new and alternative uses and production of agricultural commodities and products, agriculture biotechnology and farm efficiency and profitability, and natural resource management. Unfortunately, even before the President had a chance to sign this new law, the Subcommittee on Agriculture zeroed out the new program and used the savings to pay for other programs within its jurisdiction. However, I believe that zeroing out of all of the funding in the initiative was misguided. I am offering an amendment today that would partially restore funding for the initiative for future agriculture and food systems.”