Chellie Pingree

The farm bill gives us the opportunity to shape the health, equity, and long-term environmental sustainability of our American farm and food system.

Now is the time to create good farm policy in the 2012 Farm Bill.

This is a jobs issue, and especially in many of our local communities and certainly an economic benefit.

I think we could resolve this issue with a little bit of resources put behind it and then provide something that would really be useful to many of the farms.

How do we make sure that some of the programs you've already been talking about, are there and available to farmers?

I do want to take a quick aside here so this doesn't get lost, is follow-up on one of the dairy things.

So to us it looks like a huge opportunity.

I've introduced a title to the farm bill. It's got about 70 cosponsors, both--some on the Agriculture Committee, but a lot of people from around the country.

I'm from Maine which has a small number of dairy producers, but pricing and margin issues are just as important to all of us and a huge concern.

Anyone else on that?

Thank you Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Peterson for calling this hearing to discuss what went wrong at MF Global and what we can do to avoid these types of failures in the derivatives markets in the future.

I will continue to work with my colleagues in the House of Representatives to find sensible solutions to the problems associated with the actions of overzealous investors that threaten the financial security of honest Americans.

Many people feel we were misguided getting into Iraq, that we have been in Afghanistan for too long, and in this time of budget deficits we can just not justify $120 billion a year.

I really do appreciate his vigilance and courage in continuing to highlight the importance of ending the war and bringing the troops back home.

I agree with so many of my colleagues that we need to have a strong defense.

The TRAIN Act will delay those investments and delay those jobs in this country. The TRAIN Act is bad for business, it's bad for our health, and it's bad for the State of Maine. I urge a ``no'' vote on the TRAIN Act and a ``no'' vote on…

I think that most Americans recognize we have an obesity problem in the United States.

I appreciate the work the Chairwoman is doing on behalf of the lowly potato.

In closing, DFA is committed to identifying future programs that can address the need for nutritious and wholesome foods, including dairy products.

Your knowledge, ideas, and experiences will, I hope, be used by Congress to ensure adequate nutrition continues to be available to the neediest Americans.

I guess one of my questions, which goes counter to some of the concerns that people have, is when was the last time we updated the SNAP formula?

I really appreciate the 40,000--on behalf of the 40,000 Mainers who benefited from the Administration's decision to extend that waiver twice.

I have a lot of concerns about this, and I will try to get a couple of questions out.

I appreciate both of you holding this hearing today. Thank you very much for the work that you do and the way that you help some of our most vulnerable citizens.

I understand the chair of the Committee when he talks about the need to make cuts. The deficit issues that we are facing in this country and the importance of tightening our budget everywhere that we can.