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Committee Republicans Speak Out in Support of America’s Family Farms

House Education and the Workforce Committee Republicans showed their support for family farms by urging their colleagues to vote ‘yes’ on Rep. Tom Latham's (R-IA) Preserving America’s Family Farms Act (H.R. 4157). The legislation, which was approved by the House of Representatives with bipartisan support, will protect opportunities for young people to work on family farms by prohibiting the Department of Labor from advancing restrictive regulations relating to youth agricultural employment.

Several committee members spoke on the House floor to urge support for family farmers and H.R. 4157:

         

The Preserving America’s Family Farms Act would prevent the Department of Labor from issuing a rule prohibiting young people from working on their own family farms… The lessons learned on a family farm should be reinforced and encouraged more, not less. – Rep. Richard Hanna (R-NY)

         

Throughout our history, farms have been handed down from one generation to the next through the knowledge a future farmer gained working alongside his or her parents. Public policy should promote this great American tradition, not dismantle it. – Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI) 

         

I would be devastated if a Washington bureaucrat came and told me that no longer could I teach my children the way of life that was passed on to me by my father... That is why I stand here today in support of H.R. 4157, Preserving America’s Family Farms Act.
– Rep. Kristi Noem (R-SD)

         

Earlier this year, the Department of Labor issued a misguided rule that would effectively ban children from working on family farms… If this proposal from the Department of Labor were actually implemented, not only would it rob our young farmers of important educational opportunities, it would erode part of our nation’s rural culture. – Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN)

To read remarks by Workforce Protections Subcommittee Chairman Tim Walberg (R-MI), click here.

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