Today, House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Angie Craig (MN-02) delivered the following opening statement at a full committee hearing titled “Member Day.” Watch the full hearing here.

[As prepared for delivery.]

I want to thank the Members for being here today to testify to us.

As we look back on this year, it is clear that the House Agriculture Committee plays a critical role in the daily lives of the American people.

Whether you are a rancher being undercut by President Trump’s plan to import more foreign-grown beef, a farmer worried about their ability to sell their product overseas,  a single parent struggling to afford food for your child after Republican cuts to SNAP, or all the above worried about how everything seems to cost more in President Trump’s America – one thing has become clear this year: sound agricultural and food policy matters.

These issues affect every community and every congressional district in the nation, and so the Member Day hearing serves as an opportunity for our colleagues to present testimony to the Agriculture Committee on the issues that are most important to their constituents.

I thank our colleagues for taking the time to share their priorities as they relate to our committee’s jurisdiction.

My hope is that my Republican colleagues on this committee – who have a responsibility to act as a check on the executive branch and to serve the people who elected them to office – will listen and take their priorities to heart. It has become crystal clear that the White House is not listening to farmers or families right now and that many of our Republican colleagues sadly are not speaking up.

An idiotic trade war. Band-aid relief programs that picks winners and losers in the ag economy. Non-stop lies and misinformation about SNAP. Pretending there is no affordability crisis. Rural hospitals closing. Health care costs everywhere going up. That’s this administration and today’s Republican Party.

Instead of admitting that tariffs are increasing costs for all Americans, shutting farmers out of markets that took years and billions of dollars to develop and making food more expensive for American families – the administration has prioritized rushing a $40 billion bailout to Argentina.

Instead of ending the trade war that has contributed to increasing farm bankruptcies this year compared to recent years and cost farmers nearly $30 billion in losses, the Trump administration announces an farm aid package for row crops that fails to meet the moment of helping American farmers after a challenging crop year – particularly leaving specialty crop farmers, sugar producers and foresters out in the cold.

Day after day, week after week, at press conferences, during TV interviews and in cabinet meetings, President Trump and his administration make it clear that they are not hearing the American people who are telling us: Help us, life is getting too expensive.

Health care costs are going up in America’s heartland; rural hospitals and health clinics are closing because of the Big Ugly Bill’s $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts; insurance premiums are skyrocketing due to ACA tax credit expirations, which nearly 30 percent of farmers and ranchers rely on for health care; farmers are drowning in debt as input costs remain high and trade wars cost them their biggest customers; hungry seniors and children are getting less to eat because of non-stop attacks on food assistance.

Our committee can do something about that. We can bring sanity back to our trade policy. We can ensure that basic needs programs – whether in rural health or food affordability – are there for hardworking Americans when we need them, instead of helping the president cut the heart of out of these programs.

We can show the American people, the people who sent us to Washington, that we hear them, and we are doing something about the current affordability crisis. If my colleagues in the majority could find the courage.

 I look forward to hearing from our colleagues about their priorities today.