Today, House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Angie Craig (MN-02) delivered the following closing statement at a full committee hearing entitled "Increasing Demand and Opportunities for Homegrown Products Here and Abroad." Watch the hearing here.

[As prepared for delivery.]

Thank you to our witnesses for being here today. Your voices and perspectives are important.

The political environment right now is one where it is very hard for some people to speak plainly. To speak truth to power.

We all know that the president’s tariffs and trade wars have made things tougher for farmers. The bankruptcy levels speak for themselves.

We all know that the war in Iran is making diesel and fertilizer way too expensive, and that even if commodity prices improve a bit, those benefits are swallowed by higher input costs. That is simple math.

We all know that canceling grants, firing Farm Service Agency staff, making farm equipment more expensive with tariffs, delaying the implementation of year-round E15… does not help.

Farmers need this administration to get out of the way and let them do their jobs. Throwing global markets and the national economy into a tailspin is not paying off, least of all for farm families.

Thank you, and I yield back.