Glenn Thompson: “I want to thank Mr. Faso for his amendment. I have had the privilege and honor of visiting his district, where we had…”

“I want to thank Mr. Faso for his amendment. I have had the privilege and honor of visiting his district, where we had one of our listening sessions that we did. This is only my second farm bill to participate in, and the last one was very good. Chairman Lucas did a great job. But this one, we kind of broke the barriers, I think, in terms of transparency and in the amount of listening sessions that we had. I appreciate we were in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where each January, we have a farm show, the largest indoor agriculture exposition in the country--that was a shameless plug, I know--but we were also in New York, and I appreciate what Mr. Faso is offering here with his amendment. I certainly speak in favor and support of his amendment. Identifying the geographic sources is so incredibly important, Mr. Chairman, because then we can see what are the natural enemies to these bugs, these fungi, the invasive species that really today are having such a devastating effect. In the Allegheny National Forest, we are proud of our hardwood cherry. We are very afraid of the spotted lanternfly because of what that could do. Compared to the West, we are probably what are considered a puny or very small National Forest, about 513,000 acres, but it is the most profitable National Forest because of the value of our timber, and invasive species go right after the value.…”