House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member David Scott today delivered the following statement at a full Committee hearing regarding the financial conditions in farm country. Watch the full hearing here.

[As prepared for delivery]

Our hearing today is focused on farm financial conditions, the well-being of farmers, and the health of our rural communities.

Over the past few years, we have heard the cry for a stronger farm safety net. Commodity prices are not keeping up with higher input and credit costs.

It is clear that we need to come together – Republicans and Democrats – on a farm bill that strengthens the farm safety net.

I remain committed to enacting a truly bipartisan farm bill this Congress that enhances the safety net for farmers and protects the safety net for hungry families.

Our challenge remains today what it was before; how do we pay for what needs to be done in the farm bill.

I remain concerned that the pending 2024 Farm Bill eliminates USDA’s ability to use CCC funds to help insulate farmers from market shocks.  

In 2020, then-Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue – my friend with whom I served in the Georgia State Senate – used approximately $23 billion in CCC funds for the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, which helped farmers survive lower prices arising from COVID-19.

In 2018 and 2019, he used the CCC for the Market Facilitation Program, which distributed about $23 billion in payments to eligible farms to help offset losses from the Trump trade war.

While Secretary Perdue’s trade aid program had many faults, the ability of USDA to help farmers stay afloat was essential. We will hear more about that from some of our witnesses.  

Both former President Donald Trump and his partner, Senator JD Vance, promise even more tariffs and trade wars. The Republican party even enshrined this in their official party platform last week.

American farmers bore the brunt of the trade war last time, and they would be hit hard again if Republicans pursue an economic agenda that will undermine the stability of American commodity prices and lead to retaliatory tariffs.

The prospect of a new trade war while eliminating the Secretary’s CCC authority, the only tool that kept family farmers afloat, is nearsighted and dangerous.

Bottom line, if we want to get a farm bill done this year, as these witnesses want, we have to find a different way to pay for it without locking away this important tool for five years.

I am sincere in my offer to you, Mr. Chairman, to work on a bipartisan basis to find acceptable improvements to the bill to bring it to the Floor. But you must be open to changes.