David Scott

Rural broadband deployment won’t succeed in closing the “digital divide” unless the agencies handling billions of dollars in funding coordinate better.  That’s the collective sentiment of House Ag members.  Ag Chair David Scott said “effective communication” is the key to 100% rural broadband deployment using the historic Infrastructure and Jobs Act funding.   “And this is why we established proce

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association said it’s not ready to back a cattle competition bill by House Ag Chair David Scott but adds the legislation is a much better starting point than the alternative.  While the NCBA opposes Senator Chuck Grassley’s Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act, Tanner Beymer said they aren’t ready either to back Scott’s Small Family Farmer and Rancher Relief Ac

House Ag Committee Chair David Scott recently introduced the Small Family Farmer and Rancher Relief Act to help small farmers and ranchers in the cattle industry. “As I’ve said before, it’s a crisis in this nation that we’ve lost an average of 17,000 cattle ranchers per year,” Scott said.  “The drivers of the loss ar...

Last week, House Agriculture Chairman David Scott announced the intention to introduce a bill to help small family farmers and ranchers and address the national crisis in our nation’s beef supply chain. Scott said, “What has been missing from the conversation is help for the very beginning of our food supply chain, which is our nation’s small family farmers and ranchers.” The bill Sco...

The four CEOs of Cargill, Tyson Foods, JBS, and National Beef Packing have agreed to testify before Congress. Reuters said the meatpacker bosses will discuss cattle markets and price increases for consumers. House Ag Committee Chair David Scott says it’s important to find out why prices have dropped for ranchers and risen for consumers. ...

The war in Ukraine took the attention of the House Ag Committee this week, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a passionate plea to American lawmakers by video link. And that presentation impacted the Ag Committee hearing. “Ukrainian farmers put 50 million metric tons of corn and wheat into the global food supply," said House Ag Committee member, Austin Scott of Georgia. "

The Ag Secretary is already thinking about the 2023 Farm Bill. Tom Vilsack spoke before the House Agriculture Committee last week and mentioned the upcoming Farm Bill. The Secretary wants the committee to use the next Bill to help him move rural America from an “extractive economy” to a “circular economy.” He said a circ ...

Senate Ag Chair Debbie Stabenow is non-committal so far on cattle market reforms proposed by other senators trying to boost competition and prices to independent producers. A fire at Tyson’s Holcomb, KS facility in 2019, followed by the pandemic have together sparked outrage by many over the big price spread between fed cattle and boxed beef, but Stabenow is making no promises on reforms. ... Rea

The House voted 418-9 to advance legislation that would extend the authorization for Livestock Mandatory Reporting through September 30th, 2022. House Agriculture Chairman David Scott said that does not preclude market reforms to help independent producers ...

House Ag Committee Chair David Scott and fellow Democrats sent a letter to House and Senate leadership asking them to preserve the Ag spending provisions in the Build Back Better Act. They point out that the provisions included in the agriculture portion of the Build Back Better Act will make transformative investments that will benefit agricultural producers and rural communities for years in are