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[Page H2687]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
NATIONAL AGRICULTURE DAY
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
California (Mr. Costa) for 5 minutes.
Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, as a third-generation farmer from
California's San Joaquin Valley, I wish everyone a happy National
Agriculture Day, something that we do throughout our country.
I am proud, obviously, to represent the heart of California's San
Joaquin Valley. But our agricultural productiveness throughout the
country, beginning with the very origins of the history of the United
States, has truly been one of the tremendous assets that we have had.
We are home to the most productive agricultural land in the world,
not only throughout the country, but in California. Our farmers, our
dairymen and -women, our ranchers, and our livestock folks feed the
country. I have often said that our food security, that dinner that we
have on our dinner table every night, is a part of America's national
food security.
As a senior member of the House Agriculture Committee, I am proud
that we delivered a comprehensive farm bill last year. Now it is part
of our job to ensure that we implement that farm bill as a safety net
for agriculture throughout the country. But it is also a safety net for
those who are working poor, those who are, unfortunately, recipients of
food assistance programs and the school lunch and the school breakfast
programs. So the farm bill does a great deal to help all Americans.
This year, the Agriculture Committee will work to ensure that those
promises we made in the farm bill will be implemented in the way we
intended. The subcommittee that I chair, the Subcommittee on Livestock
and Foreign Agriculture, will be at the vanguard of that effort.
Today, on National Agriculture Day, let us thank those who grow
America's food and fiber and put it on America's dinner table every
night. I am talking about the farmers, the dairymen and -women, and the
farmworkers, who, through their hard work and the fruits of their
labor, make this all come together.
Visas for Citizens of Portugal
Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, soon, the Portuguese Caucus will be
reintroducing legislation that is important for not only the United
States, but for our ally Portugal. We will be introducing bipartisan
legislation that will allow citizens of Portugal to be eligible for
what is called the E-1 treaty trader visa and the E-2 treaty investors
visa.
Portugal is one of the United States' oldest allies and a close
economic partner. The United States became Portugal's largest trading
partner outside the European Union in 2015. Bilateral trade reached
$4.2 billion in 2015, a 30 percent increase from 5 years ago.
However, because Portugal did not have a bilateral investor treaty
with the United States before joining the European Union, they are one
of only five European Union countries whose citizens are not eligible
for the E-1 and E-2 visas.
This is long overdue. It is good for the United States; it is good
for Portugal; and it is good for increased economic activity between
both countries. It is bipartisan. Hopefully, this year, we will be
successful in implementing these E-1 and E-2 treaty investor visas.
70th Anniversary of North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, this year marks the 70th anniversary of the
founding of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
We helped create NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, not
only to protect our European allies, but to protect our interests. For
70 years, it has done just that, a remarkable success.
Next month, in April, we have invited the Secretary General of NATO
to come address a bipartisan joint session of Congress to take
assessment of and to commend our NATO partners, along with the United
States, for a job well done.
How do you say a job well done? Well, after World War II, over the
last 70 years, this is the longest peacetime period in Europe in 1,000
years. Think about that. The last 70 years has been the longest
peacetime period in Europe in more than 1,000 years.
NATO has been one of the cornerstones that has created that peace
dividend, being an absolute and critical barrier against the aggression
of the Soviet Union and other totalitarian states, being there for the
fall of the Iron Curtain. NATO's relevance today is just as important
as it was then.
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