Jim Costa

I think it is counterproductive to encourage companies that are investing in Iran when we have an economic boycott on Iran.

I appreciate the importance of this hearing today and to have the Secretary of the Interior here.

It is a constant concern of the devastation of the impacts, economic impacts to the people in my communities of this drought.

Our Subcommittee has tried to look at using all the energy tools in our energy tool box.

Mo Udall was my hero and my mentor. I worked with him daily for 12 years crafting legislation that set a new standard for stewardship of the lands and resources that sustain us all.

I want to commend you for putting this hearing together. It is an important issue.

The suggestion that he would have thought that any citizen or group of citizens or the Congress of the United States was precluded by some deal or some judgment he had made a generation earlier from taking new action to express that love…

I think partnerships are very critical.

Another comprehensive food safety bill is H.R. 1332, the 'Safe Food Enforcement, Assessment, Standards, and Targeting Act of 2009' or 'SAFE FEAST Act.'

We very much believe that an indemnification program is needed as we consider this legislation.

I think, falsely advised consumers against consuming raw tomatoes when they were never actually a part of the food safety in question.

But it depends how the product is operated.

The dairy industry in the United States is in meltdown, let's make no mistake about that.

the issues are, many of them are, related to competitiveness, and the fact that we would be more competitive in the long run as you get the distortions out of the international trading system, and those are primarily export subsidies.

We support the July 15th letter that Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, along with my Senator, Barbara Boxer, from California, have signed on.

Do you agree that a better Federal Dairy Price Support Program should be updated to account for the production costs?

I mean, the costs they are receiving for their milk at $9 to $10 per hundredweight and their input costs are $17 per hundredweight, you can't stay in a business like that very long.

I once again want to thank you and Chairman Peterson.

If we are going to deal with these long-term boom-and-bust cycles, that is going to have to be a critical part of the long-term solution.

We hope to continue to vet that with you during the month of August.

Due to a lot of factors, change cannot come soon enough to save those who progressed too far along the path of overproduction, and for many the result will be the end of their farming experience.

But I do believe in California we need to become more innovative. The markets are there.

There are no words that can adequately describe how truly bad the economics are, they are just that bad.

We want to get the Agriculture Department back over here.

I think more needs to be followed up in that area.