Washington, DC – Congressman Mac Thornberry today provided the following comments on the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington’s Order entering a permanent injunction affecting the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) management of the Conservation Reserve Program’s Critical Feed Use initiative. Read more

Washington, DC – Congressman Mac Thornberry (TX-13) announced that he and other Members of the Texas Congressional Delegation have written to encourage the U.S. Department of Agriculture to lift a judge’s temporary restraining order against the Conservation Reserve Program Critical Feed Use Program. Read more

As of 6:15 PM DC time, on Thursday evening, it is still not entirely clear how the parliamentary mess holding up the Farm Bill will be resolved. When Congressman Mac Thornberry was asked about this earlier today he responded: “Of course, everyone can make a mistake. What’s disturbing about this episode is that there was an attempt by the Democratic leadership in Congress to hide from the mistake, rather than stand up and fix it. Unfortunately, farmers, ranchers, and others involved in agricultur... Read more

Washington, DC – Congressman Mac Thornberry today voted in favor of the 2008 Farm Bill. “A year after this bill should have been passed the Democratic Leadership in the House finally allowed the bill to come to a vote,” said Thornberry. “This is clearly not the Farm Bill I would have written, but with crops already in the ground producers deserve the certainty this bill provides.” Read more

Thornberry says U.S. ranchers and beef producers, who have been eager to provide high quality U.S. beef to Korean consumers, will again have access to the Korean beef market. According to the office of the U.S. Trade Representative, prior to discovery of BSE in the U.S. in December 2003, South Korea was the third-largest market for U.S. beef and beef variety meat exports, valued annually at $815 million; about 60% of it was bone-in product - beef ribs. On April 18, 2008 the United States and the... Read more

Washington, DC – Congressman Mac Thornberry today announced that the House has passed H.R. 5813 to provide a clean extension to the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 through April 25, 2008. “The new Majority in Congress has made a habit of waiting until past the last minute to pass important legislation and apparently this year’s Farm Bill will be no exception,” said Thornberry. Read more