Thank you Chairman Grassley. I know how important the issues we are here to discuss are to you, Mr. Chairman, and I’d like to thank you and your staff for your leadership on this hearing.

The subject of today’s hearing is the unprecedented consolidation in the seed and agrochemical industry involving five of the so-called “Big Six” companies. Each of these deals raises complicated antitrust questions. Taken together, these deals propose to fundamentally reshape the agricultural industry. This hearing will help assess the competitive risks—and benefits—these transactions may present, both on their own and collectively.

But over the past several decades, the economic value of diligence and drive has faded, as the legal obstacles to work have multiplied.

As a result, economic success today increasingly depends on acquiring the right combination of credentials and licenses – bureaucratic status symbols that tend to require time and money that only the most privileged Americans can afford.

Good afternoon and welcome to this hearing of the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights. Today’s hearing is entitled, “The CREATES Act: Ending Regulatory Abuse, Protecting Consumers, and Ensuring Drug Price Competition.”

Mr. President: reserving the right to object.
What’s being proposed here today is to unleash the Export-Import Bank from the constraints it is currently under and to allow it to begin authorizing transactions above $10 million. Between 2007 and 2014, 84 percent of the Bank’s subsidy and loan-guarantee deals exceeded $10 million, and the vast majority were given to the wealthiest, most well-connected businesses that should have no problem acquiring financing on the open market.