On the recordMay 16, 2018
As I have told you, it is an absolute honor to serve on the Committee on Agriculture, under the leadership of the chairman as well as the ranking member. There is no doubt about that. But I mainly say that based on the work that this committee does, the work that this committee does to serve those in agriculture and what that service can do for the backbone industry of our country. However, as a Representative on this committee and as a Representative of the salad bowl of the world on the central coast of California, my country and, yes, my community expected more out of this farm bill. Look, in my area, with its flourishing specialty crop industry, we wanted more funding for the specialty crop research initiative. Because of our specialty crops, we have a labor shortage because of the people who are needed to pick those crops. Therefore, we needed stronger language in the bill for mechanization to help with our labor issues and to bridge that gap from the Salinas Valley into the Silicon Valley. With our burgeoning organic industry, we needed more funding and less cuts for the Organic Certification Cost Share Program so that we can properly invest in beginning producers. In addition to this, the majority is trying to implement an untested and unproven change to title IV of the SNAP provision. Such a change threatens to remove over a million people from the program and deeply affects the 74,000 people who are recipients of SNAP living and working in my community.…
