Figures Touts Priorities as Powerful Ag Committee Member: ‘Agriculture and the Work of This Committee Has Real Life Ramifications on My Neighbors Across the Second District.’
WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Shomari C. Figures (AL-02) delivered a passionate testimony during the House Committee on Agriculture Member Day Hearing about his priorities and the real-world implications of how agricultural issues affect his constituents in Alabama and communities across the nation.
Watch remarks here!
Below are Congressman Figures’ remarks, as delivered:
As you know, I serve on this committee, and it’s with great pride that I serve on this committee given what it means to my district. I represent Alabama’s second congressional district which consists of 13 counties. 11 of them are completely rural and the two non-completely rural counties are likely the only two places in my district that most people on this committee, or in America, have ever heard of in my district, and that is Mobile and Montgomery. And both of those have significant rural portions of those counties as well.
So, the work of this committee is not abstract to me or to the district that I represent back in Alabama. For my community, ag issues are a daily reality—from soybean farmers and specialty crop growers to row crop growers to our forestry industry. Agriculture and the work of this committee has real life ramifications on my neighbors across the second district, and historically, this committee has met those needs with a spirit of bipartisanship that puts the needs of rural America first. And that's the way I try to operate myself on this committee. I think many people know that I go above and beyond to attempt to work across the aisle in ways that will bring tangible benefits to the people of my district and of this nation. And I believe that commitment right now matters more than ever.
And we can start with what has been touched on, I guess, a lot already, so I won't beat a dead horse, as we say back home, but I think it's worth noting.
Earlier this year, we did witness the largest SNAP cut in the history of this country by this administration through the [H.R. 1] bill, and we also saw throughout the shutdown process the refusal to spend available money on SNAP beneficiaries. And so that is something that was very concerning and something that my colleagues here have touched on.
So, I'm going to spend my time touching on another aspect of those SNAP changes. And that's the fact that in the Big Bill—you know, we held a hearing on SNAP after we made the SNAP cuts. We held our first hearing on SNAP, and every witness on the panel testified that we had put into control of the states the ability of whether or not they would even participate in a SNAP program or not. And that is one of the biggest, most concerning pieces that I hope we can come back together in a bipartisan way and rectify, because as it is now, if states do not meet, or cannot or refuse to meet, the cost-sharing provisions for whatever reason—whether they are political reasons, whether they are financial reasons—every witness on this panel testified at that hearing that there is no SNAP in that state. And that is not where we should be.
From a policy standpoint, I don't think it's good policy. I don't think it's good law, and it's certainly not good patriotism to allow 50 different states to say we're not going to feed hungry people, even though they would qualify in other states. And so that's something that I certainly hope we can come together and work in a bipartisan way to at least fix that issue.
The rising costs and tariffs is something that's huge. It's something that's impacting, I think, all of our districts in a variety of ways. I represent a community where the median individual income is just north of $32,000. To say that a different way, 50% of the people who file a tax return in my district make less than $32,000 a year. It's one of the poorest districts in this country, and so even the smallest rise in the cost of putting food on the table or the cost to do business significantly impacts people where I'm from. And so it's something that we, I think, have to keep at the front of mind as we continue our work in this environment that we're in.
And so I want to cite to that the Farm Bill. Everyone knows here we're long overdue for a Farm Bill. I'm a rookie on this committee. I'm hoping that I can bring some rookie good luck with us. Or I was hoping to bring some rookie good luck in terms of getting a Farm Bill across the table. Obviously, many of those provisions were pumped into H.R. 1, but there are still things that have to be done. And it is sincerely my hope that we can come back to the table in a meaningful way, in a timely way, and pass some things that will support our beginning farmers, that will expand ag research, that will modernize SNAP, that will strengthen our crop insurance—something that will ensure that our rural communities have the housing, infrastructure, and economic tools that they need going forward.
And with my remaining time, one of the big reasons I wanted to be on this committee was for rural development purposes. I represent a district where rural hospitals are closing left and right, probably at the fastest rate of any district in this country. We have a number of food deserts with no grocery stores. We have a number of areas that don't have rural broadband access. And so it is my hope that we can prioritize working together across the aisle in a meaningful, impactful way to be able to bring some rural development funds not just to my district, but to everyone on this committee's districts and in Congress, to be able to positively impact the lives of those people in rural America—to show them that, you know, despite the environment here, we can still figure out a way to move the ball forward on a wet field.
So, I look forward to working with you guys to do that. And thank you. I see my time has expired. I yield back.
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