Mike Conaway

I am still deeply concerned with the Commission's position limits proposal and the impact the new bona fide hedging restrictions will have on agricultural producers.

For too many end-users, Dodd-Frank has created more complicated and more intrusive, and more costly regulatory mandates.

SNAP dollars should provide the greatest benefit possible and allow for the maximum improvement in nutrition for the households that need them.

As a taxpayer myself, and as a steward of taxpayer dollars, I want the dollars that go toward SNAP to be well spent.

As the Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, I am especially cognizant of the challenges that many who live in rural America face in accessing healthy food.

New Mexico has the most fouled-up SNAP program in the country.

In order to maintain support from American taxpayers, we as legislators and program administrators must ensure that these programs are accountable and transparent.

Americans generally support welfare programs to help those who have fallen on hard times, the elderly, children, and disabled individuals who cannot care for themselves.

Help us to be worthy of the trust that our constituents put in us.

As policymakers, we must be cognizant of the various laws we consider and regulations that are proposed to ensure that Washington is not making it harder for families to put food on their table.

We are driven by consumer demand, and have responded to our customers' evolving demands for healthy food items.

We ask that Congress support common sense, bipartisan proposals to end the treatment of military Basic Allowance for Housing as income when determining eligibility and benefits for Federal food assistance programs.

Today, our witnesses will help us gain a better understanding of the various options and flexibility states have when implementing SNAP.

While it is important to empower states to employ the best policies to meet the needs of the low-income families they serve, we, as Federal lawmakers, must ensure the integrity of SNAP is maintained.

As we prepare for the next farm bill, this holistic understanding of the program will be important to make meaningful improvements.

America has been able to not only survive but thrive because our agricultural safety net helps farmers weather the bad times.

If the United States is going to push China on biotechnology, it should also preempt the states so there is one national GMO labeling policy.

With fewer and fewer Americans connected to production agriculture, many in Congress fail to recognize the importance of sound agricultural policy to our national security.

A nation that can feed itself is a much more secure nation.

America has the safest, most affordable, most abundant food supply in the history of the world, and that is not by accident, it is by design.

If we can achieve this important principle, I think we go a long way in ensuring that American agriculture harnesses the power of big data.

This hearing will give those who doubt the need for U.S. farm policy a glimpse into what American farmers and ranchers are up against every single day.

But, until that day becomes a reality, we cannot and we will not unilaterally disarm America's farmers and ranchers.

I thank the gentleman. I want to brag on the House for having conducted this business with respect to this bill the way it has. If you go back to your grade school or your junior high civics classes, I'm a bill on Capitol Hill trying to…

I thank the chairman of the Committee on Rules, Pete Sessions, for his kind words and also his support tomorrow. I think the bill that went through the Committee on Energy and Commerce that started life as a Joe Barton bill will be the one…