Supporting Child Nutrition Rulemaking

Floor Speech

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Mr. COMER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to applaud the Trump administration's recent proposed rulemaking for school meals and the Summer Food Service Program.

As a member of the Agriculture Committee, and ranking member on the Education and Labor Subcommittee with jurisdiction over the child nutrition programs, I have consistently heard from school food service administrators in my district about their frustrations with the heavyhanded Obama-era regulations.

I am glad to see the administration is seeking input from those who administer these programs every day. This new rule will provide needed flexibility for food service supervisors to adapt their menus to teach students proper nutrition habits that they will adopt during crucial periods of growth and into adulthood.

These food service professionals know the needs of their students best, and I look forward to seeing this rule finalized and our schools and communities become even stronger. Updates on Agriculture and the Trade War with China

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Mr. COMER. Mr. Speaker, I think most people in this body know that I am a farmer by trade, and I represent a southern Kentucky district that is one of the biggest agricultural districts in America.

I am very pleased today to give an update on the accomplishments that the Trump administration and Congress has made over the past 3 years with respect to agriculture.

Anyone that keeps up with President Trump knows that he sincerely cares about the farmers in America; and he realizes that the farmers, through no fault of their own, have been on the front lines of this trade war with China.

But if you talk to any farmer, as I do on a regular basis when I am home in Kentucky, the farmers still strongly support the President and they understand why we are in this trade war. They also understand the efforts that have been made and the accomplishments that have been achieved with respect to agriculture from this administration and from this Congress over the past 3 years.

I want to touch on three areas where we focused in Congress, where I focused as a member of the Agriculture Committee, to improve our agriculture for our family farmers who are struggling, again, on the front lines of this trade war with China.

First of all, regulations. As with many other industries in America, one of the first things that President Trump looked at, and then the Republicans and the majority of this body looked at 3 years ago, was the regulations. Many industries, especially in agriculture, felt like there were burdensome regulations that were holding farmers back, holding agriculture back.

So, one by one, this administration, whether it was through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, or the EPA, has looked at every regulation to deem whether that regulation was necessary, or whether that regulation was excessive and needed to be scaled back.

I am very pleased to report that the biggest regulation that scared most people in agriculture was the WOTUS rule from the Obama administration. I am very pleased, last week, this administration completely eliminated the WOTUS rule with respect to navigable streams. Under the Obama regulation, every mud puddle in Kentucky would have been defined as a navigable stream, therefore, creating a situation where farmers would be breaking the law to farm the land that they farmed for many generations.

Next is tax policy. We focused very heavily on passing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which helped cut taxes overall, but one thing that helped agriculture is the accelerated depreciation rule, which encouraged farmers to make a bigger investment.

And, lastly, trade. We have had huge success on the trade front over the past couple of weeks here in Washington, and I applaud the Trump administration for their efforts to not only sign the USMCA, which is the new modern NAFTA deal that puts workers on a level playing field in America with workers in Mexico and Canada, but it also enhances agriculture opportunities.

Also, the phase one trade deal that the President signed recently with China, this focuses on agriculture. It brings back those markets that we lost in agriculture because we were on the front lines of this trade war, and it also increases new markets for agriculture.

I am very pleased with the achievements that have been made in agriculture, but I realize that our farmers are struggling and we have a lot more work to do. I pledge to continue to work with the Trump administration to see that our farmers are treated fairly and that we can continue to grow our Nation's most important industry: agriculture.

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