Frank Lucas

Our agricultural policies must reflect the needs of our diverse farming communities.

My, aren't free elections a wondrous thing?

We will look for duplication within issue areas to determine program overlap.

My goal with these hearings is two-fold.

Conservation is an important element of farm policy.

We are extremely concerned about the direction taken by the Commodity Trading Futures Commission (``CFTC'') in its proposed rules with respect to bona fide hedging.

We believe the proposed regulations are unnecessarily narrow, impose onerous reporting obligations on commercial market participants, and lack the flexibility necessary to ensure that the legitimate hedging activities of corporations who…

I look forward to hearing the testimony of Secretary Vilsack and the views of my colleagues on the state of the farm economy and on the direction of Federal farm policies that could make or break it.

Fortunately, promoting American agriculture is simple.

The bottom line is Washington is being met with a critical choice that will have major consequences down the road: We can promote the one piece of good news out there today, or we can pour cold water on it.

I do believe the Secretary has agriculture's best interests at heart, and I want to work with him to be an advocate for farmers and ranchers both inside the Administration and here in Congress.

The state of the U.S. farm economy is strong.

I want to express my appreciation to first and foremost of course to both Chairmen and both Ranking Members of the two Subcommittees for holding this hearing.

I believe the law of unintended consequences is the hallmark of hastily considered rules and ill-conceived regulation.

I have supported the CFTC's collaborative regulatory process.

Today, this Committee begins what will be a long series of hearings to review the implementation of the derivatives provisions included in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act.

A margin requirement imposed upon end-users would subject them to significant cash burdens, cash that might otherwise be used to put to work in the economy.

Although it may not have been perfect, Congress included an exemption in Dodd-Frank for end-users from the margin, clearing and exchange trading requirements.

As we work to revive the economy and create new jobs, we simply cannot afford sweeping new regulations that are poorly vetted that impose substantial costs that outweigh the benefits for our financial system and our economy.

Title VII isn't just about financial firms; it has the potential to impact every segment of our economy, from farmers and ranchers to manufacturers, energy companies, to healthcare and technology.

The complexity of Title VII shouldn't be underestimated, but neither should the far-reaching impact it will have on our economy.

I believe the same principles should be applied as we exercise our oversight responsibilities on implementation of Dodd-Frank.

This hearing of the Committee on Agriculture to review the implementation of Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act will come to order.

I would simply observe, I think, that we all realize that the Fed's, in effect, running the printing presses perhaps is the best policy alternative they have there right now in this situation.

Simply to close by thanking my colleagues Mr. Cardoza, Mr. Hastings, and Mr. Johnson for their work on this important issue. It does make a tremendous difference in our ecology, and certainly with a $15 billion tag, the effect of losing…