House Agriculture Committee Passes Farm Bill with North Carolina Priorities Included
North Carolina is blessed to be one of the most agriculturally diverse states in our great country, with the agriculture industry contributing more than $111 billion to the state’s economy and employing 16% of the state’s workforce. Unfortunately, farm families throughout America have had to weather a pandemic, drastic inflation and interest rate hikes resulting in increased production and labor costs.
To support them, I joined my colleagues on the House Committee on Agriculture in approving H.R. 8467, the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024, commonly referred to as the Farm Bill. This legislation will ensure our producers have the safety net necessary to continue to produce the safest, most abundant food and fiber supply in the world.
North Carolina will especially benefit from the Farm Bill because of the steps taken to strengthen the competitiveness of specialty crops, improve access to safe drinking water in rural communities, and the other investments made to bolster our farm safety net, agricultural research, and open new markets abroad.
Beyond the farmgate, this legislation strengthens rural economies across the country, incentivizes work, and maintains vital nutrition assistance for those who truly need it while enhancing work opportunities so they aren’t trapped on welfare. Click here to read more about the priorities for North Carolina included in the 2024 Farm Bill!
Protecting Your Financial Privacy
In 2022, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in collaboration with the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, completed a study known as "Project Hamilton" to research the adoption of a US Central Bank Digital Currency, which is a programmable digital currency issued, regulated, and controlled by a government.
Just as for many across America, this project concerned me as well as many of my colleagues in Congress upon learning of it. The implementation of a US Central Bank Digital Currency (also known as a CBDC) could easily jeopardize the financial privacy and freedom of all Americans by giving the government the ability to monitor and/or restrict any transaction and any account.
We have already seen the consequences a government-controlled CBDC can have on a country’s citizens. In China, the Communist Party has implemented a CBDC they use to restrict individual freedom by closely tracking citizens' transactions and then limiting such transactions or punishing them for purchases.
Additionally, the Federal Reserve lacks the authority to issue a CBDC without congressional approval. Despite these concerns, the Biden Administration, through Executive Order #14067, continues to advocate for CBDC research and development in the United States.
To raise awareness of this issue and prevent this from happening, the House Republicans passed H.R. 1122, theCBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act, with my support. This bill, of which I am a cosponsor, would halt the efforts of unelected bureaucrats from issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) that would strip Americans of their right to financial privacy.
Keeping Non-Citizens and Illegal Aliens from Voting in U.S. Elections
This week, with my support, House Republicans passed H.R. 192 to prohibit non-citizens from voting in Washington, D.C. elections. By considering this measure, Congress is fulfilling its constitutional responsibility to exercise authority over legislative and public policy matters in the District of Columbia as the permanent seat of the federal government.
H.R. 192 is in response to a misguided law passed by the D.C. Council in 2022 to disregard federal law and allow noncitizens, including illegal immigrants, to vote in D.C. local elections. The D.C. bill, the Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act (D.C. Law 24-0242), also failed to make any exception for foreign nationals or diplomats enabling them to vote in D.C. elections as well. This means representatives from other countries (including foreign agents working at the embassies of our adversaries such as Russia and China) can vote in D.C. elections, including for President!
H.R. 192 would repeal the D.C. Council’s Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2022 and prevent individuals who are not United States citizens from voting in elections in our nation's capital. The American public must be confident the electoral process is carried out fairly and every vote is legitimate. Otherwise, trust in our sacred institutions will deteriorate completely.
