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Senate Ag to hear from farmers, Vilsack, nominees

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., announced today that the committee’s first hearing of the 114th Congress, scheduled for Tuesday, will feature testimony from farmers, from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and from nominees for the Farm Credit Administration.

“It’s been one year since passage of the farm bill, and this committee has a responsibility to ensure farm bill programs are working as efficiently as Congress intended,” Roberts said.

“America’s farmers and ranchers are now working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to sign up for farm bill programs, and we’ve heard from farm country that there have been challenges in the process,” he said.



“Recognizing these concerns, I am putting farmers and ranchers first as we begin our work on the committee. We will hear their thoughts on the first panel, and then Secretary Vilsack will offer testimony to give us an opportunity to work together on these concerns starting right then and there.

“As I have said before, I will work to see that the federal government is an ally, not an adversary, to America’s hard-working farmers and ranchers,” Roberts added.



The panel of farmers will include:

▪ Rich Felts, wheat, corn, soybean, and livestock producer, Liberty, Kan.

▪ Ronnie Lee, cotton, peanut, wheat, corn, soybean, pecan, and cattle producer, Bronwood, Ga.

▪ Clay Mitchell, corn and soybean producer, Buckingham, Iowa

▪ Michael DeRuiter, cherry, apple, and peach producer, Hart, Mich.

After Vilsack testifies, the committee will hear from Jeffery Hall of Kentucky and Dallas Tonsager, of South Dakota, who are nominees for the board of the Farm Credit Administration.

–The Hagstrom Report