Sanford Bishop

Thank you very much and I look forward to that.

A healthy agricultural community translates to a healthy society for all of us.

According to the National Parks Conservation Association, 95 percent of voters support the National Park Service.

These stories are of national and international significance, and we are fortunate that the National Park Service is preserving and interpreting these stories.

I am asking that the National Park Service Construction Account be funded to $252 million from $215 in last year's budget.

In fact, for every dollar invested in the national parks, $10 is generated in national economic activity for those communities.

As you know, shortly after taking office, President Trump issued a series of executive orders related to regulations and government operations.

Previous CFTC Chairmen have indicated support for funding some or all of the agency's costs with user fees.

I was pleased to see that CFTC finalized rules that were proposed last year to protect whistleblowers.

I want to get to a question that may not be quite as long.

I always agreed with our former colleague, Congressman Sam Farr of California, in categorizing the CFTC as a financial first responder.

We simply cannot afford to go backwards in food safety, and the proposal before us would lead us in that direction, I am afraid.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

I applaud the exhaustive work that has been done on trying to reconcile this issue to find a solution that balances public safety and patient access.

Are we inadvertently setting ourselves up for an economic crisis in the agricultural community by having institutions that could be too big to fail?

I would like to understand where you were prior to that executive order.

The hiring freeze was just established in January of this year.

The Farm Credit Administration plays a vital role in helping to finance our agriculture sector.

Rural health care is really, really critical at this point in time.

We typically rely on USDA data when we look at the circumstance in that area.

It would be helpful to us if we could, at least, see it, it was a little more transparent for us.

It's important that in this farm bill that we craft a bill that is flexible enough to apply and to help all of the producers in the entire United States.

I think it is important that we be able to monitor that progress, and hopefully there is progress.

Last year, I raised the issue of diversity within USDA.

I was somewhat shocked at this finding because compliance with Buy American is critically important to our farmers.