Agriculture

The mammoth farm bill passed by the U.S. House last week contains a provision written by Rep. Suzan DelBene, of Medina, to replicate a Washington state program to train food-stamp recipients for jobs with taxpayer money. To read the full story, click HERE. Read more »

Congresswoman Suzan DelBene calls the farm bill passed by the U.S. House a ‘big win’ for Washington’s specialty crop farmers. She says the bill gives unprecedented levels of funding for the specialty crop industry, including Whatcom County fruit and vegetable farmers. $800 million for specialty crop research. The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on the farm bill next… Read more »

Today a majority of the members on the joint House-Senate Conference Committee to negotiate the Farm Bill approved a conference report on a final five-year Farm Bill. The compromise agreement includes a number of reforms that will reduce the deficit by over $20 billion, with the majority of savings coming from reforms to agricultural subsidies, such as the elimination of direct… Read more »

Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) sits down with KING 5's Mark Wright last week to talk about the NSA's broad spying program. DelBene said the NSA should be reigned in and only look at specific phone data. She also talks about proposed cuts the SNAP food stamp program and even gave her predictions for Sunday's Super Bowl. To watch the entire interview, click HERE. Read more »

Congresswoman Suzan DelBene announced that the Northwest Agriculture Business Center in Mount Vernon will receive $200,000 from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to support local farmers and agriculture related businesses. Awarded through the USDA’s Rural Cooperative Development Grant program, the funds will go to help the Northwest Agriculture Business Center’s work in… Read more »

Congresswoman Suzan DelBene gave the following remarks during the Farm Bill Conference Committee’s first meeting today. The bipartisan, bicameral committee will focus on resolving the differences between the House and Senate-passed Farm Bills over the next few months. The 2008 Farm Bill extension expired September 30. The full text of DelBene’s speech, as prepared for… Read more »

Ninety-five percent of the world’s mouths to feed live outside the United States, and 160,000 people in Washington are gainfully employed in feeding them, yet the state’s $40 billion agricultural export trade is threatened by Congress’ prolonged failure to write a new farm bill. The farm bill stalemate is another Tea Party-caused breakdown of business in Washington,… Read more »

U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., was named to the conference committee working to pass a farm bill. Conference committees are made up of members from the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate and are used to negotiate when the two branches pass different version of a bill. The House passed a farm bill last summer separate from a food stamp bill that would cut about $40 billion in… Read more »

Today, Congresswoman Suzan DelBene was named as a member of the conference committee to negotiate a reauthorized Farm Bill. The House of Representatives yesterday passed a resolution to enter formal talks with the Senate, and today named their conferees. DelBene issued the following statement: “I’m honored to have been appointed to the conference committee to negotiate a… Read more »

BURLINGTON — More educational offerings and support services for beginning farmers will be added to the Viva Farms program in Burlington as a result of a substantial federal grant from the Department of Agriculture. As part of $3.2 million in federal Specialty Crop Block Grants recently provided to the state, Viva Farms received $115,226 to fund a case study of the Viva model and… Read more »