■e time. we are out of time too. the whole world is watching. i do not know the speaker. i would be very surprised if he was to go down in■/ as the person or the politician who who lost ukraine because he had to hold onto his job for her lost ukraineople and his party d not resist the celebrity benefit of going and raising money a crazy politics that does not recognize the stakes for what they are. we were able to close over sena.

the house is going to have to do that as well. it got to everything you can to make sure they reach that conclusion because the consequence for our nation's reputation will be as severe as anything that we have ever certainly faced in the last decades around here. usually i would end by saying i am confident. i am confident as are people of goodwill in this body that have worked too much of the united states of america stands up tense up for nato stands up for our responsibilities to her children and grandchildren and our responsibilities to this world. but that mr. president, i yield the floor. > ■: ■, ht

vote: yh

clicks the senator from texas. quick's mr. president clearly it's an election year. because we are hearing more and more political speeches from the floor of the senate. and precious little work doing the hard things that we actually are elected to do. which is to legislate. with appropriation bills that should have been completed last september. i don't know people really understand that. what we are doing lurching from one shutdown to the next is dealing with lester's work. but you would think that under leader schumer we would have enough things to do rather than squander the deal with those because we are dealing with lester's work. i think we can do better next year. hopefully with a different majority we can actually pass a

budget. we can take up and pass appropriation bills on a timely basis and we can get our work done on time. something that has not happened under the current leadership. i want to mention one hopeful sign where at least one branch of the legislature is actually moving things through committee. and across the floor and allowing votes, amendments, and debate. that will be the house of representatives. not the united states senate so world's greatest deliberative body. to their credit earlier this year the house passed a bill they made significant changes and our tax system bird that is what i want to talk about for the next few minutes. this legislation was negotiated by the chairma of the senate finance committee on which i am privileged to serve.

senator ron wyden and house ways and means committee chairman jason smith. they released a framework of this agreement in mid january. our colleagues in the house and immediately began work on the bill. the ways and means committee held hearings, actual hearings, legislaterings and a markup to debate the legislation. members offered and voted on and men months and ultatsed the comd the full house with strong bipartisan support. given the polarization of partisanship that often grips congress with the bipartisan bill is no small feat. especially during an election year. but that does not mean the work on the bill was finished. as everyl student knows, who takes civics or american history, they note

congress is a bicameral body the house and the senate have to work together. they are two chambers, two sets of members with diverse views for its editors representing whole states, in my case 30 million texans. represents a much smaller congressional district. but the process means both the chamber seem to work for these bills to improve them make sure they are as good as we can make them before they are signed into law. my point is the senate is not a rubberstamp for the house.ould t a rubberstamp for us. that is the way it is, so be it. members of both chambers have a responsibility to evaluate and

shape legislation before it is sent to the president's desk. congratulations to members of the house for doing their job. they sent a bipartisan bill to the senate at the end of january it is now turn to take a closer look at this legislation and see how it might be improved. chairman wyden woud schedule a markup in the senate finance committee and allow members to ask questions and offer amendments to the bill. i am sure he thanks his negotiated bill with chairman smith is perfect and does not need any improvements. but others may have a different point of view. after all, but members of the house ways and means committee has the opportunity. that is called the legislative process. that is what we are supposed to do. you would think a chairman wyden would let members of his own committee to have the same opportunity members of the house

ways and means committee has. but appen that is not the case. nearly two months have passed since that bill passed the house. chairman wyden has shown zero interest in moving this bill through the finance committee and across the floor of the giving all senators a chance to participate in the process and hopefully improve the final outcome. in fact the chairman has refused to schedule a hearing. or even a markup as i mentioned. it was rejected commonsense proposals by ranking member mike crapo and senate republicans.g earlier this week the majority leader virtually guaranteed the bill will not go through the regular order in the senate. he took a procedural step to■n>t this bill on the fast track for a vote here on the senate floor.

without any opportunity for the senate finance committee that ax matters. no hearing, no markup, just take it or leave it. i have reviewed this bill i will concede there are some portions that are very promising there are problematic areas that need for work. for example, this bill as to incentivize research and development here at home. by easing the tax burden on american innovators. as absolute critical to our competitors. congress needs to promote new investments and capabilities that will propel our economy and national security into the future. this legislation, to its credit full immediate expensing for its equipment and re- purposes

enables small businesses to make business. and boost domestic manufacturing. i've spoken to a number of my small business constituents in texas for these types of reforms the house a passed bill is a great starting point. for a full debate here in t senate. i believe there's a lot of potential here. i share rking memberrapo's concerns about the main provisions of the bill. one example is the watered-down work requirement for the child tax credit. under the proposed change, parents with zero earnings would still be eligible for a government check. in other words, historically tax credits have been tied to and have been a credit against

taxes you would otherwise owe. a refundable tax;é credit is merely a check from the federal government regardless of whether you work or create any income whatsoever. under the proposal by chairman wyden, chairman smith his long as a person worked during one of the last two years, one of the last two years they would be eligible for the child tax i sae child tax credit has been tied to work. i would think we would want able-bodied people to be working, if work is available. with this change would completely undermine that basic when the joint committee on taxation analyze this bill, they found the expanded child tax than $33 billion over the next three years.

you heard by colleague, our colleague senator rand paul talking about the fact our national debt is approaching $35 trillion. this would add to that. despite what the authors of this proposal have said, the vast jo to tax relief. according to the joint committee on taxation 91% of the cost of this legislation is spending. it is writing a check it may be called a tax credit but it is a welfare payment isfer payment. 91% of the money will be sent as a check for people with zero tax income to cause them to have a tax liability. it is not a credit against earnings or work. it is essentially a welfare check. only 9% of the 33 billion-dollar

cost is tru relief hard-working taxpayers. the rest is a new welfare program by another name.o threes expensing of interest it is■ permanent. i have every confidence our colleagues across the aisle will come back for another bite at the apple. we would be doing a great disservice to taxpayers by loudly child tax credit to morph into another welfare program. we should not set the stage to become a permanent fixture of entitlement spending.olleague from kentucky talk about the fact the money we are appropriating here today and we did a couple weeks agox this is only about one third of what the federal government spends. you don't vote too appropriate e

that money it is automatic. are proponents of this tax bill is to add another $33 billion over three years to that number. th t is, when it comes to the discretionary spending the money we appropriate we have done a much better job controlling the rate of increase of that spending. but right now, entitlement programs grow at six, seven, 8% a year. debt is approaching $35 trillion. supporters of this proposal have tried to downplay concerns about the cost of the bill because they say it's only a temporary change. observation the closest thing to eternal life on earth

as a temporary government program. there is no such thing as temporary around here. people come back to reauthorize it, extend it, or to grow once created it is not go away. as soon argue and has to be extended. they will frame anyone who opposes another extension is tryi t taxes on hard-working families. well, as i said and as the senator from kentucky said our national debt is currently $34.5 trillion bailout was spent during the covid pandemic.> trying to give the public health crisis and the economic crisis we did what ever we had to do to make our way through that. but in doing so we added a lot

of money to the national debt. we should not continue that. the national debt is increasing by almostllion dollars every 100 days. the permit tax credit expansion will only fuel the debt crisis we are facing. some day there will be a terrible crisis. national debt already you are hearing we are spending more money this year that interest on the national debt that we are on our own defense. according to the committee for responsible federal budget, the child tax credit expansion it willcost $180 billion over the t 10 years. we need to pump the brakes on this expansion. this runaway debt training.

not stomp on the accelerator, which is what this proposal would do. already represents federal spending it tax credit extension would drive it even higher. that is just one of the concerns that i comment many of my republican colleagues have with this legislation. over the last several weeks as we have been able to analyze the text of the bill, other concerns come up more concerns of come to light. this legislation would have a major impact on families and job creators across the c careful. we need to be deliberate. and we need to make sure we understand what the impact of this legislation would be before a vote on the senate floor. which is the reason why it committees like the finance committee exists. getting it right is far more important than doing it fast.■ç

build consensus which is the way we do things around here he cannot shut everybody else out of the i understand building consensus in a diverse about it like this is not easy. it is hard. i think some people are positively allergic to the difficulty of that job. but that is govern but that's why the senate operates. we need an open forum to debate this bill and make changes at ■íd the committee level i'm disappointed the chairman of the finance committee himself as refused to do so. just as our counterparts in the house had their to evaluate this legislation and make improvements at the committee level senate tax opportunity. to have the same as each of our colleagues know congress developed a very bad habitf

procedures designed to give every single senator a voice in the legislative process. for too long now up behind closs and plopped here on the senate floor facing another deadline, a nether cliff you can't change it. all you couldn't dos or there we consequences like a shutdown. committees have been sidelined we have moved toward a a small number of members make decisions and try to bully or threaten everyone into voting yes. i can tell you i for one and i know i'm not the only one i am ti the process. being treated like a potted plant.

thatannot happen with this bill. mr. president i will not vote to move this bill on the senate floor until we have a process that allows all senators to participate straight with members of the senate finance committee. help my republican colleagues will join me in requestinghe finance committee be given an opportunity to do its job. until that time i hope there are 41 senators who will the majority leader's request that we proceed to consider this legislation after bypassing the finance process. but once we do that the majority leader must allow robust floor debate and amendment process. ■%that is what we do. that is our job. all senators deserve a chance to participate. as i the committee. and then on the floor. many supporters of this bill are pushing for a process in the

senate the tax season is well underway. they suggested the senate should advocate its job and rush to get the job done. the taxis and began before this bill even past the house. the chairman of the finance committee completely undermines the urgency argument by sitting on this bill for the last two months. the majority leader chairman of the finance committee on to ram this through the senate without proper debate or amendments. and republicans must not allow that to happen. the way we gain a leverage in force a negotiation rather than being run as amiri speedbump is for 41 senators to stick together to deny cloture on a motion to proceed. members deserve a chance to shape a bill before final up or down vote on the floor. i urge chairman wyden and

schumer to give■e opportunity. >> correct mr. president i yield will help he ■s

e nd thank you all for joining today's hearing entitled the danger china poses to american agriculture after remarks members will receive testimony from our witnesses today in the hearing will be open to questions. quess

with our panels of our colleagues. governor noem taking a few questions. timewise i'm not we sure will be able to do a full five minute round with the governor. the second panel will be five minutes of questions as normal. so good morning and thanks to all for being. very timely and necessary of the threats china poses to american agriculture. the people's republi■$c of china governed by the chinese communist party is where this comes from. and does not come from individuals imposed. basically what we are looking at links to the chinese communist party. it's going out of its way to reduce its reliance on american agriculture. all of pursuing tactics.

these threats are multifaceted. they are in incendiary that required coordined and proactive response. these last few months have seen china steel u.s. intellectual property. critical cybersecurity relating infrastructure weapon icing andn ferment at an alarming rate for each of these disrupt our national security of rural communiency. china's use bid system to steal intellectual property but we've seen this and everything from semi conductors to seize. not to mention the scale and sophistication by which china can manipulate critical infrastructure as expose vulnerabilities in american technologies but this interference has range of data breaches in research to ramping up destructions of irrigation and transportation. in 2022 chairman comer and i the

republican colleagues asked the government accounting -- accountability office to ev its impact on national security trade in food security. as many of you note in 2021 the department of agriculture estimated investments in u.s. agricultural land grew to nearly 40 million acres. a few months ago we received a final report that shows congress were gaps exist and are recording framework. how better more timely coordination between federal agencies could help increase visibility into potential national security risks related to foreign investment. congress took a natural first step with the recent passage of consolidated approach patient act for the bill addressed ownership of land by improving f it. china imports almost as much food as the u.s. exports to the whole world makesdx this conversation more difficult.

in recent years the u.s. is seen a record export values to china. for soybean, corn, chicken, tree nuts, and sorghum. all of which are major contributors to a domestic farm economy route underscoring the importance of expanded market access and market diversity elsewhere. so, how to strike the balance protecting our producers, consumers, every piece of agriculture value chain? while keeping pace with china's need? how do we reduce our reliance one country that undermining the strong export market. how do we think smartly about policies that mitigate threats while protecting our best assets. today's witnesses come from the table with the lived experience and decades of knowledge of china and these very questions i welcome each of you and look forward to the discussion. with that i would now like to

welcome the distinguished ranking member the gentleman from georgia, mr. scott for any opening remark you like to make. >> thank you chairman. ladies and gentlemen the purpose of today's hearing is to discuss the influence that china has on american agriculture. but unfortunately, some of the rhetoric surrounding this topic may derail us from tackling the real issues at hand. and may contribute, hopefully not, but may contribute to violence again -- against asian americans but i want all americans to know that we, on the agricultural committee condemned all bigotry race motivated threats. and acts of violence. this is about agriculture policy not people policy.

i also want us to keep in mind that china is an important trading partner to the united states. we need a thorough and policy heavy conversation so that we can help the american farmers. and over agricultural assistance. this is challenging and somewhat thorny issue. i hope everyone here today■x whe engaged in a serious, backed minded, fact based conversation and avoid fear mongering and alarmists. though i am told this is not the topic of this hearing, i am also pleased recently enacted agriculture appropriations bill will help usda update its outdated system of tracking

foreign agriculture land ownership in the united states of america. and if we are going to have a serious discussion about foreign influence on american agriculture, we must remember accounting for 33.7 billion dollars and u.s. agricultural exports just last fiscal year alone. american farmers are the most efficient and productive.use ofr more than we americans can consume. my colleagues will often we

are in an agricultural trade deficit right now.

i am here to tell you alienating our trade partners will only deepen that deficit.armers neede markets to export their products. when those markets are lost, hooded arm? our farmers and that the american people. we saw the implications when the trump administration started a trade war with china creating chaos and undermining markets fo farmers. trade workshop america farmers out of china, guess what? resilient farmers have filled that gap increasing their exportsarket

share decreased. now it's going for 60% tariff on all chinese goods this would have drastic impact on american agricultural production. consumers i would almost certainly lead to devastating retaliatory tariffs placed. i think it is fair that u.s. being so dependent on a single export market who is also a strategic imposes a risk for our american farmers one way we can address this concern is to expand trade in existing markets while we open new markets.

i continue to support increasing the market access proam. that is the way to go out farm market development programs in the farmville. are critical for our american agriculture. however, t places where i am very critical of the chinese government. of seed it other agriculture technology is highly concerning to me. and continues to be a problem.st program. and ignoring decisions hinders access creates an unlevel playing field for u.s. farmers. i also remain highly critical of any foreign government seeking

to buy american land near essential intelligence or our military installation. this is now a major national security. we must protect our national security. this is the national security issue of soaring magnitude to this we have got to protect our farmland and not get in the hands of foreign interests.part. i look forward to hearing from our witness chairman today and coming out of this hearing within improved understanding out relations china and how we can work together to america's agriculture interests. thank you. >> i think the gentleman.

the chair request others submit their opening statement for record for it witnesses may begin their testimony to ensure this ample time for questions please recognize or collect the gentleman from south dakota. mr. johnson to interest a first witness to the direct mr. chairman governing a nation should be a team sport. unfortunately there's a l o polt vision and shared efforts luckily our speaker this morning my friend, my governor knows how to work together. she understands we get a lot more done the federal government on the state governments are trying to find a path forward together. i would say we don't think there's a month that goes by the leadership necessary to have our teamwork with her team. what's protect the american farming from the chinese communist party. getting tiktok up government devices, making sure her state

pension program has the flexibility to divest from ccp influences remake into the park farmville parties are right managing black hills national forest in the appropriate way. prot rushmore. i could go on for an hour, sir, and i know you do not want me too of the ways our speaker■ó ad i have been able to work together. i've got to tell you i'm honored to be able to have a real stop h dakota in. a real leader and a real partner come back to the egg committee and share wisdom with us. mr. chairman the governor of the great state, christie known. >> thank you gentlemen welcome governor known. witness mike gallagher chairman of the select committee congressman thank you for joining us. hopefully our third witness

today i do know he hadally we hope will be able to join us as it other respected colleague of mine. someone i work with the many issues the gentleman from illinois whose rank mers select committee on the chinese communist party. thank you to all witnesses for joining us today we will proceed to your testimony. you each have fdpive mines the timer is in front of you the countdown to zero at which time your time has expired. governor please begin when you are ready. >> projects thank you, thank you, mr. chairman's honor to be with all of you today thank you congressman for that very kind introduction britt you are a wonderful friend and doing such a great be because you still have my staff and kept them by left the hill. [laughter] your wonderful representative for south dakota thank you so caring so passionately for all of our people. chairman thompson i also the honor of having one of my former chairman of this committee sit

in front of me today. chairman as i serve here in the house of representatives and had a chance due to farm bills serving under his leadership on this committee was a special honor for me i loved being a member of his team has to put together foreign policy. i was referred to his food policy for the nice states of america but it's wonderful to see you again chairman lucas. look forward to continuing to receive your advice and wisdom of the years. ranking member scott thankith yu to discuss this topic. as a former member of this committee notes very well to protect the food supplies y often stewards of our land. the treasure for us to do that each and every day. the 33rd governor of south dakota my home state is known for its gorgeous black hills, throwing planes but also iconic have not come to visit us you probably should because it is beautiful. agriculture see number one

industry and our stable tourism it's incredibly important to our people that are lanced in good shape we continue to produce. this years special to me because this is the 30th year i have worked on agriculture policy. if so i spent my lifetime work on policy not just being a farmer and rancher and raising o being involved in meetings. if you're just the age of 22 my dad was killed in an accident on our family farm i got angry when i found out how our families could be hit tragically by the death tax us aren't showing up at meetings to talk about policy and how it impacted small farms. at that time u.s. senate majority leader was tom -- who was a democrat. i ended up at him appointing me too serve on the farm service agency state committee which is a committee that oversees all the federal farm programs in the state of south dakota. i did that for many years as a . and also as a farmer and rancher running a large operation in our states.

i was heavily involved in the implementation of federal farm programs in our state making sure they work for all of our ranchers and they were as flexible as possible together the freedom to choose how they ran their farms and to do it very well he also served many different commissions task forces out here in washington d.c. during those years to help who were in tough situations are different critical situations and as a general manager of our business operation i read our farm for many decades. was first elected to the state legislature in 2006 and became the assistant majority leader in the house for a while there i rewrote our agricultural property tax system. i ended up running for congress, was elected, served on this committee we worked on to farm bills was turned on serves on nl resources, on the armed services committee, education and workforce committee and ended on ways and means committee when we did tax reform was very proud to see that signed into law. in 2019 when he ran for governor in our state right one and then

was reelected a year in 2022 i am in my second term now. i tell you all of this because i think it is important for know that my heart is with the land and it is with our people. but, when it comes to policies, i know what i'm talking about in a know it because they live it. today a focus this committee is the danger china poses to american agriculture. over the years i have witnessed hospital communist country work to systematically take over our food supply chain. they have decades ago started buying our fertilizer companies, controlling our ability to access fertilizer, bring it into the united states for that i watch them buy up our chemical companies is a work tt policies are state-level at the federal level. i watched us as we sold citizenship to chinese communist members of the communist party for investment into our processing systems and on most of our processing facilities are owned by the communist party or

chinese now they are coming for our land paired with a buy up our land they will complete their trait of control of our food supply at between 2010 in 2020 the chinese come at his party holdings of gland increased by 5003 100%. reports social china was about 3003 at 84000 acres of u.s. eggland valued at over $2 billi. this should be alarming to all of us. usda admits this may not even account for all of the land they own because there's ver l invold in these large transactions. in fact, very little reporting happens at the state or federal level at little consequences for allowing countries to hate us from owning our land. just this past summer we had members of the communist contact our state government and went to visit, to her processing

we declined all this meetings. within days we received a phone call from the state department telling us those were chinese spies. they were there to steal our intellectual property, to steal our genetics wanted to debrief us if we had met with them. thank god we did not. we were not we were told they were there to our trade relations to improve our business and exports instead they were there to steal from thein so the threat is very real to us. every single day what china is doing and they have a thousand year plan to become the world dominating power in the world. the only thing standing in their way is america. just this past summer it was very clear to me when those chinese spies were in our state. china was to control us. they want to do that by controlling our food supply for the chinese comedies party is■# not our friend. they are not our partner and not our ally, they are our enemy for the rapidly expanding security

threat that it cannot be ior the buying up our entire food supply chain pair would america cannot feed itself the rule at other members of a another country 2 feet as it's a national security issue. the country that feeds us will control us. let me remind farmville every year. i am well aware you have priority to get that done and look forward to getting it done. this is for farmers out there. ■ [

every family recognizes importance of farm bill. the farm bill should be designed h environmental extremists. i hope that you'll continue to focus on making sure that we are working as a conservationist myself i'm committed to protecting abundance of natural resources in my state but so-called climate the farm bill manages risk and it is a safety net and i hope that you can get that done. recent media reports show that the largest chinese holder of american ag land is shipping

food and■a medical supplies to china to be stockpiled by the chinese military. we all saw when chinese in north dakota. they were purchasing the land on purpose for national security reasons and that's why i've made it a priority in my state to make sure it doesn't happen in my watch. in south dakota we worked for two years to make sure w had a bill in place so we know who is buying our land and it wasn't going to be from a country that hated. china would never allow us to gn their country. there's no reason we should allow them to come to our country and buy our land and especially not close to military installations. home of b-1 bomber that has protected the country for 50 years and home for the reaper drones in operation protecting us as well but this is the first home of the b-21's.

it's incredibly important that we stop china governments don't come in and have opportunity to buy up land next to military installations. when we talk about food policy please talk about it as a national security standpoint. it's important that we grow our own food, that we produce it here and a way that protect it is united states of america and wi will yield that. >> thank you, thank you, governor. now please recognize chairman gallagher, begin when you're ready. >> thank you chairman thompson, ranking member scott, members of the committee. what an incredible important to discuss the threat posed by the chinese communist party in general but american agriculture in particular. i want to thank the governor in her leadership about sounding the alarm about carrying the burden of dealing with dusty johnson before he leaves the room. he may not technically weigh that much but t

burden. and i believe he's from your dakota. i always get it confused. a year ago a gentleman named ian tao, prc national plead guilty to conspiracy to commit economic espionage and sentenced to more than two years in prison for stealing intellectual property from his employer which was a monsantos subsidiary. here you have an example of someone stealing american technology and bringing directly back to the chinese communist party which reflects the ccp's approach for agriculture and food security in it's not just about economic economic competition so quote general xi jinping himself, it is a national security issue of extreme importance. prc is the largest importer of corn, soybeans, wheat, rice and

dairy products in the world. the ccp views food security as an existential issue. she understands that if china were to avoid taiwan it would be subject to blockade and economic sanctions and, therefore, prc would face massive challenges in feeding its population. so to put it bluntly, the chinese communist party actively engaged in economic warfare against the united states and already a prime target. the governor mentioned the share of u.s. farmland owned by chinese u.s. link firms increasing five fold between 2010 and 2021. these are only the a divisions -- acquisitions that we know about. they did not report the purchase to usda until the u.s. media

started asking questions about it. that's unacceptable. if you look more broadly at the process at least 3 problems emerge, one the u.s. government doesn't have a way to track services. second, even upon discovering a problematic transaction, often finds it has no jurisdiction despite the fact that in the firma bill we try to give jurisdiction just happened with the food acquisition and because it was not listed as sensitive site, claimed they had no au the transaction. that's unacceptable. so foreign adversaries are able to purchase thousands of acres of our farmland and sifia can't consider the impact on our f

supply. this drives me as something that democrats and republicans can come together right now in this congress and solve by passing something like the protecting u.s. farmland and sensitive sites from foreign adversaries act. i know there's members on both sides of the aisle. this is something that we can get done even in divided government. give sifias■0 the authorities it needs so adversary can't buy land near infrastructure. i suggest we can do better by passing biosecure act which my ranking member is a cosponsor. . taxpayer dollars don't go to beijing institute that want to collect genetic sequences from plants and animals from american farmers and on the flip side we should protect our food security for generations to come by cataloging the genetic sequences of u.s. plants and animals that n help american

families keep american families fed. so in closing, i will just say i spent a lot of my time on the select committee of china asking why any of this matters, why you are having the hearing, why do we care about the threat pose bid the chinese communist party, it's not they are just stealing intellectual property, i do think it's a■ recognition of reality, if you read what xi jinping is say to go the party and its people. i believe ccp is preparing for a war with the united states. there's no doubt they would prefer the fruits of war without the actual costs, that is to be sure. but they are preparing nonetheless and he's told us repeat lid that he's prepared to use force if necessary to achieve his life-long ammunition g taiwan, thereby dominating the region and ultimately displacing the united states as the most powerful country in the world.■ so if we want to avoid that

outcome which would be a terrible outcome, a war with china would be horrific if you ever participated in a war game, i know there's many on the committee that understand the cost of war. we have to abide by the old adage. if we want peace, we must prepare for war. and that is the challenge to mobilize our colleagues and our constituents to do difficult costly but important things that put us on a path to deterring war. thank you for having this important hearing and thank you for letting me a little bit3 longer. >> thank you for your leadership and testimony. i know you have a hear to go get to so feel free -- >> i could imagi rog would say if he were here. >> c-span is covering the hearing, you'll be able hear him time delayed. >> all right, thank you so much. >> no, thank you. we are going to take an

opportunity and so we are going to take two questions from each side of the -- of the diagnosise governor who has been more than ain race with her time and first recognize mr. lucas from oklahoma for five minutes of questions. >> thank you, chairman, governor, good to see you in this room again. i think we both agree that strong healthy vibrant america is key to natiol security. but i serve in a body now where memories are short and i'd like to go back ten years ago to when you and i were worked together that two and a half year struggle as you remember to create third generation farm bill and maybe memories have numbed with time but not just the way you conducted yourself in this committee on behalf of your constituents. but in those republican■é we bad

about important of farm bills, i would forever be internally grateful for you backing me in the way you handled the speaker and the floor leader on behalf of rural america and production agriculture so thank you for that tenacity which i suspect is only grown stronger with time in your role as governor. fire and they get tougher and understand that what you all say and matters and what you do matters the words you use have consequences and it matter who is is in leadership so i have gone at times in my different roles recognize that leadership needs to sit and listen to people and have conversations. we've become a country that has become addicted of being offended by each other and therefore we love to be offended

said and should be bipartisan and we should be able to put a safety out there and i'm asking you to do it for the consideration of food policy. if we think a pandemic was scary, can you imagine what would happen if we can't feed our people. we are only for a crisis. i can't vanguard that china is not an emerging market. they should give me an ability in a fund that doesn't have government for my people to get them the best return possible. we recognize that china is not our ally, yes, we do trade with them and when we do trade and i woed i served on the ways and means

committee, i had the ability to notice that when we did trade agreements we created friendlier neighborhoods but we can't do that if we are not talking to each other and having conversations so that farm bill even though i picked a lot of fights with my own fellow republicans we got them done. and we are going to have to challenge both members of both parties to come back to the table to make sure we have the safety net to make sure we feed our families. >> thank goodness for that and continue to demonstrate. with that i yield back, mr. chairman. >> the gentleman yields back, please recognize the ranking member for questions. >> thank you very much, governor, how are you good to have you with us but tell me this, what is your opinion of trump's proposal for a 60% tariff on all import and are your farmers ready to face the potential consequences of this? >> i think that that is a from posal that people are still

looking at and that's a great conversation for you to continue to have as well with the republican members to weigh in to make sure that we get the best policy in place because policy is what matters and the debate and discussion is incredibly importa. you made a comment in your opening statement ranking member scott that you talked about the fact that we were here to talk about ag policy not about people policy and for me, you know, i would say that all ag policy is people policy. that what you do on this committee is people policy. it's about feeding people. it's about the programs that take care of needy folks that need to have that kind of help. it's also about making sure that we have many farmers outn our land and that we have that safety net there, so you have an incredible opportunity to do something here in this committee that's not happening anywhere else ocaou catch that vision. nobody really cared i would say years ago that much about a little state called south dakota. we get one member of the house. when i came here as a congresswoman i didn't get a

delegation. i was all by myself. so i became friends with everybody, republicans or democrats because if i wand get stuff done i could. we were the first state to ban tiktok and led -- and after that dozens of statesanned tiktok because of the threat that it is. >> governor, i've got one more question for you in my short time. if you listen to my opening statement i hope you understand how concerned i am about foreign government coming in and buying up our land especially our farmland. food makes the agriculture committee the most powerful committee up here in congress. you can do with a lot of things

and the one thing you cannot without is food and i'm concerned the china impact especially in buying up this farmland and certainliulate with the number of the immigrants coming into go mexico or south america, too get into the trips where they are coming across the border. i got to wonder about that and i want to ask you how much land in south dakota have gone to foreign interests and i want you to know this is a national security of -- of high

monumental interest and we've got to get to the of it. how is your state reacting to the buying up of land by foreign government particularly china in your state? >> well, sir, that was the question i had when i became vend we had a law on the books that prevented foreign evil governments from buying our land but there was no reporting mechanism and there was no consequences. so therefore we didn't know who owned our land, who owned our investment, we couldn't determine that because nobody was reporting it and when we found somebody was purchasing land like country like north korea, iran, russia, china, venezuela, cuba, there was no reporting therefore we didn't know and there would be no consequences if we did find out. so last year through my legislature i brought a bill that would allow at the state l. that's what i wanted to have in

place was that the states had the tuned to have a board that reviewed those transactions and then put forward consequences to make sure that it was done closer to the people and we had more accountability and we are truly looking at real transactions and putting that in place. that bill did not pass and what we ended up passing this year was a bill that added reporting mechanisms to the law we already had with consequences forcing the sale of the land so now i will know when we have bill on the books that has two components to truly get the answer. >> but there are foreign interests that are buying land in south dakota? >> i believe that there are countries that own land that are friendly to the united states. i do not know if there are unfriendly ones bing ag right now and processing facilities are owned by china. smithsfield foods process in south dakota and they are chinese owned and they have been difficult for me to work with.

>> thank you, chairman, for having this hearing because i8! truly believe that food is now . >> two additional questions to the governor and we will get testimony from my good friend from illinois, my son and daughter-in-law's congressman mr. christopher murphy. i'm going to yield to congressman austind followed by congresswoman. mr. scott, five minutes for questioning. >> thank you, mr. chairman and i'm going to get a little technical in this but the reason that it is so important for us to be aggressive with china on the ag issue is that this is a basic necessity. we are not talking about toys but chemicals it takes for the supply and technology for our seed supply in u.s. companies

80% of the global supply and today 30% of the global seed supply and so when you allow countries like china through companies like singena t supplier in the world and the largest chemical supplier in the world i might add, then you arey needs at risk which is your food supply and so governor i want to commend you for being aggresse with that. i think that it is way past time we be aggressive with china. they are not -- they are not an economic competitor anymore. they are an -- and, you know, we have to acknowledge that if tariffs is what it takes to manufacturing back not just to

the united states and western hemisphere that's what it's going to take for us to have necessities. you were here during the last farm bill, one of the big discussions that we have asked for help for and not been able to get it from many of my colleagues on the other side of the aislis increase in reference prices. as you've talked with your farmers and your producers out there, can you tell me what you're hearing from them about d need for increase and reference prices so that they have a safety net as we push forward? >> if was don't agree with inference prices there's no sift safety net. as far as doing these programs and making sure you're making adjustments to all the programs and components that are part of the farm bill, that's one of the very most important things you can do to manage risk and i want you to remember what farmers do every year and for those who aren't farmers, they literal i will go to a bank and they

borrow money to buy land and then they borrow more money to d they go get operating note so they can buy seed, fertilizer and they hope it'll rain and something will grow and months later pick something up and harvest enough so they can pay their bills. they are one of the biggest gamblers that i know. they are taking a chance because they truly do believe t and need that america needs to have. so at least give them a safety net because it's not just the fact that they operate on face that they heavily leveraged, that's why they can have one year that's a drought and lose their entire operation was because of the risk that they take but increasing those reference prices is critical to them to give them a safety net that even works and functions to get them through a situation like that and that's why i've always talked abo the farm bill as our national food policy. it's because we decided as a country it was important that we

always feed ourselves. that we don't depend on another country to feed us and, therefore, it does us good to have a much more competitive and affordable food supplies and there's a lot of farmers and safe and affordable one because we have a warm -- farm bill and they stay on land. >> i appreciate you and the type of member that you are when you were here and the governor that you've been. i would finish with this, mr. chairman, i think the last call i got was not actually from a farmer it was from a banker and his response was i don't think that the a commodity that we grow in the state of georgia where our farmers can make a profit this year at the counter size with the input cost. i yield back and i appreciate you. gentleman yields back. i want to reiterate support. a e

are two of us on this committee and that's my entire sort of lens with which i look through this. we should be able to feed ourselves by ourselves and you're right during covid my family is in the hot dog business and during covid we were concerned with the meat processing plants going down with covid that americans don'to a store and see no protein on the shelf and the panic that that would create and the concern that that wouldi also l. i guess i just to pick up on a thread that representative gallagher mentioned, thismland o through what's called the sifia again, i see it as a federal- issue because where the

intelligence community, the full rate of our -- of our sort of insider information that we may on the company, on individuals, on their intention does reside i respect your -- your attempt to do at the state level but you are about to meet with a bunch of businessmen in state department and said we have real issues with them, that was federal level. so there's a bunch of bipartisan bills putting all purchasesxc of farmland not just farmland adjacent to a military base, adjacent to a sensitive site but all farmland to sifias process and tell us whether it's a risk or not. last week myself and congressman blake moore from utah republican went a step further and i'd ask you to think about this same

intelligence community process to help us understand if that's a strategic threat to us. and i think what we are all trying to solve the same problem which is how do we make sure that nations be real adversaries potentially down the road are not able to purchase major infrastructure and assets in the united states but we hav. we can't hit it with a giant club. biggest purchasers of farmland in michigan are canada and not t canadians that are my neighbors. i used to go to drink when drinking age was 19. eal stressed about canadians buying land in the state of michigan. it has to be limited tailored but i do think it's an area of■c bipartisan cooperation. we have to do that without demonizing people from china who

are living under this government that i bet they really, really don't like, we want the best and brightest from china to want to be students here and stay here opposed to take information back to china, so that's my -- my one ask, is let's have a real policy conversation, let's do it on a bipartisan b. to will here but s also in the process not demonize all human beings with a giant brush in a way, again, as you mentioned where leaders set the tone but i agree with you on many, many things on this and ask you tobout taking it one step further from one farmland to big infrastructure that we know that they're interested in purchasing with connections to the chinese . >> that would be something that obviously we've had a lot of conversations about in south dakota because i am alarmed at that. the first next question what about commercial property, it's not that they have been conducting nefarious activity and where does this stop, we

should all be analyzing it. that's why i'm proposing the model at a state level.■4 i would use tiktok as an example. states followed our lead and our

federal government and collecting buying and spyingn us and being used. i'm much more nibble than the federal government is. >> thank you, general lady and thank the governor. much appci it. ranking member of the select committee on on china.

>> thank you, mr. chairman. >> ag has always been cornerstone and chairman gallagher and with members on the ag commit on this committee. i traveled a small town in■x;óéi in 2011 not very far from dicer a farmer saw a man digging in the corn fields. after some investigation authorities discovered that this man was not just digging for fun. he was looking for proprietary corn seeds. the man try today ship 250 pounds of corn seeds to hong kong disguised in costco-size packs of microwaveable popcorn

just like this. the total cost of this one case of ip theft was estimated to be $30 million because the folks in china wanted to reverse engineer the contents of this to be able to produce the same back in china. ag technology is a prime target of ip theft becaunology and fare best and most productive in the world. the select committee's bipartisan economic report included broad recommendations on how to best protect ip. for the ag sector, we need to continue to improve coordination between local and federal law enforcement agencies and properly resource and frame the doj to prosecute these particular crimes. there are other ag related concerns addressed in our economic report. congresswoman slokan and henson have transformed economic report recommendation in securing

american ag act which will require the usda to study the supply chains of our ag input including vitamins, animal feed and pesticides where china has been increasingly dominating the market and crowding out american and other suppliers. as we continue to remain in an era of uncertainty in trade relationship with china we also need to better protect american farmers from retaliation by the cc by diversifying ag export markets for american farmers. now, i know this committee has been looking at the issue of land sales. there are legitimate concerns with certain land purchases by ccp affiliates, ccp affiliated entities especially close to sensitive and military sites. however, as we address the problems we have to make sure the cure is not worse than the disease. some purported solutions have had real and harmful effect on

the asian community as well. florida, for example, passed sb264, law that prohibits chinese nationals, this law has serious negative impact onhe asian american community. i will give you one example. there's a case su, a asylee living in florida who was rsec was beginning to rebuild his life in florida. since passage, mr. su was forced to cancel the contract for the purchase of what was otherwise going to be his new home in his new country. the lesson here is very clear.

when land purchase bill target individual who is are merely chinese immigrants, they often target those outside of the intended audience. the asian american legal fund filed lawsuit against this particular florida law on equal protection grounds. laws like two sb264 are neither fair or justified and in the early 20th century states passed similar alien land laws in more than dozen other states for inhibiting chinese and japanese immigrants from becomin l those policies severely restricted economic opportunities and exacerbated discrimination and every single one of those laws were repealed y one. in all of those states. so please, as you consider these land purchase laws, let's careful. you folks don't want to pursue policies that discriminate against anybody, so in that

spirit let's be adopt or to encourage those types of policies. chairman, thompson and ranking member scott, thank you again for this very special opportunity to testify before this very distinguished committee, the select very much looks forward to working with your committee in the future and i thank you again. >> congressman, thank you so much for your testimony. i know that this is a busy day for all of us including you and you've been bouncing from hearings and so we are going to excuse you from the panel as well and but thank you for joining us, thank you for your leadership and for sharing with us this morning.ppreciate it. >> thank you so much. >> we are going to take just a brief break to no more than 5 minutes recess to allow our first panel witnesses depart, our second panel witnesses to take their seats and then we will reconvene.

so we will reconvene basically as soon as our witnesses get comfortably seated here and ready to go.

>> the committee will come to order. i'm pleased to welcome the second panel on this topic today regarding the threats of china to american agriculture, our first witness for the second panel of our hearing today is■/e american soybean association. our second witness for the panel is mr. nova daily who brings pur experience, numerous agencies, senate and committee on all involved on national security matters, third and final witness for this panel is a great friend

of the committee and the industry ambassador tom the former united states ambassador agencies for food and agriculture, at which point your time is expired and followed by a question and answer period after all three of you have spoken. so mr. gakel, please begin whenever you're ready. >> thank you, chairman thompson and ranking member scott and thank you for allowing me to testify. my name is josh gakel and i'm a soybean farmer where i farm with my dad and third-generation farm. this year i also have as serving as president as american soybean association which represents u.s. soybean farmers across 30 states. soybeans are the largest u.s.

agricultural export and robust international trade is a priority for our farmers. u.s. soy is working in 112 markets across the world to introduce new customers to high quality, high protein crop. opening new markets is just wasn't step followed by time, attention and long-term relationship maintenance. our trading partners are all critical to the success of u.s. soy farmers but no expert destination compares to china. in the last marketing year the totaled $32 billion.oybean china accounted for $19 billion of this total. for perspective the next largest destination by value totaled $3 billion. the cheer scale cannot be replaced. one in every 3-year-old is ship today china to fill demand. during the 2018 trade war, u.s. in an estimate impact of

retaliatory tariffs on u.s. agriculture the usda found value of u.s. exports to china increased decreased 76% from 2017 to 2018. it also estimated the trade war cost u.s. agriculture over $27 billion. soybeans accounted for 71% of these annualized losses. this has had major consequences for soybean growers. as a result of the trade war brazil ramped up production tobd production. brazil overtook the united states as largest producer of soybeans. the trade war also damaged reputation as reliable provider of soybeans and markets.

section 301 tariffs and retaliatory trade actions have jeopardized our place in the markets and damaged in-country relationships developed over decades. at times our customers looked elsewhere for their needs the n are 8 and the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table, and the president will be immediately notified of the senate's action and the senate will resume legislative session. mr. schumer: madam president. the presiding officer: majority leader. mr. schumer: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the only motionsemendments in order to the house message to accompany h.r. 2882 be the following -- paul which is at t. motion to concur with cruz 1804. motion to concur with tuberville 1781.

motion to concur with lee 1722. motion to concur with schmitt with johnson 1706. motion to concur with lankford 1713. motion to ccur with lankford 1718. blackburn motion to refer which is at the desk. further, the senate vote in relation to the above motions and amendments in the order lists, that upon the disposition of the blackburn motion to refer, senator budd be recognized to make a motion to table number 1794 and if that motion is not agreed to, senator hagerty be recognized to make a motion to table 1793. and if that motion is not agreed to senator budd be recognized to make a motion to table the motion to refer with the amendment further, that if tabling the tabling votes are not agreed to, the cloture motions with respect to the house message be withdrawn, the pending

amendments and motions be withdrawn and the senate vote on the motion to concur in the house amendment to senate amendment h.r. 2882 with 60 affirmative votes required for the adoption of the motion to concur. without further intervening action or debate and with two minutes for debate equally divided prior to each vote. further thatwithstanding rule 22 at a time to be -- further,hat4072 introduced earlier today be placed on the calendar and notwithstanding determ b in consultation with t republican leader, but no later than friday, april 19, 2024, the senate4072, crapo tailpipe emissions and two hours for debate equally divided and on theúj or yielding back of

time the bill be considered read a third time and the senate vote on passage of the bill with 60 affirmative votes requiredor passage without intervening action or debate and if passed the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. now, madam president -- the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. schumer: madam president. i'm going to be briefause we want to move objection for the easy, but tonight our persistence has been worth it. i want to thank the great making this chair murray, vice agreement possible. again, it is good for the american people that we have reached a bipartisan agreement to complete thei job of funding the government tonight.

mr. schumer: i'm going to put in a short quorum call as we wait for the first person, or the first amendm tarrive. he's on his way. i will ask everyone to stay in their seats so we can get this done very quickly and some people have very importan places to go, and we want to get her there. i ask unanimous consent that all the votes after the first vote be ten minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: again, i would ask members respectfully but with s please. so we can get this done. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

the clerk: ms. baldwin. m■w ñ% a■■i .

mr. schumer: madam president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent to modify the previous order so that the lee motion to concur be first in the order. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. lee: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. lee: i move to concur in the house amendment to the senate amendment with further amendment 1722. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the clerk: senator from utah, mr. lee, moves to concur in the

house amendment to the senate amendment with further amendment numbered 1722. mr. lee: madam president. the presiding officer: there are now two minutes of debate equally■) divided. mr. lee: madam president, when the rest of us board an airplane, we always have to show a photo i.d. to prove who we are, that we are who we claim to be. not so if you're an illegal immigrant. under the biden administration, all you have to do is pullutcbp created, doesn't prove who they are, it just says you can board the airplane. that's not okay. that's not fair. in fact, just between january and september of last year, 221,000 illegal aliens emptied the united states this way, then were allowed to fly around the country without i.d. this has had tragic consequences. an example of the danger presented by there is reflected in the fact that a haitian immigrant cory alvarez, whose

entry into the united states was facilitated by the raped a 15-year-old mentally impaired if i recall in the -- girl in the united states. he's thankfully been arrested h. it should never have had to come to this. this will stop that from happening. i urge my colleagues to support this amendment and end this r: senator from washington. mrs. murray: the cbp-1 app is a downloadable app to schedule appointments with cbp at a land port of entry. under our existing asylum laws, noncitizens may apply for asylum at ports of entry. u using this app provides cbp with advanced notice who is arriving already passed security checks. about 1400 appointments a day occur through the app. by providing peoplevel authoriz it allows them to avoid human

traffickers and drug cartels and other criminal organizations. accepting this amendment will lead to more encounters at the border, pulling our agents from other work and responsibilities, like stopping drug car getting fentanyl through our border. and it will create long lines at ports of entry as individuals travel to the borde all the guarantee of a shutdown for no sensible reason. i strongly urge my colleagues to vote no. mr. lee: i call for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. the clerk: ms. baldwin. mr. barrasso. mrs. blackburn.