Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Chairman Miller and Ranking Member Michaud for their tremendous leadership and the work that they have done over the years to provide veterans with the best…

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Brown), who serves on the Veterans' Affairs Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Brownley), my colleague who serves on the Veterans' Affairs Committee and the ranking member on the Health Subcommittee.

Mr. Speaker, how much time remains? The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Collins of New York). The gentlewoman from Arizona has 9\1/2\ minutes remaining.

We all know that this is a business where there are lots of uncertainties.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the chairman of the subcommittee and the ranking member, Mr. Frelinghuysen and Mr. Visclosky, for their terrific leadership and the great work, tough work that has taken place in crafting this Defense Appropriations…

Conservation is this Subcommittee's bread and butter too.

I want to thank my friend also for giving us this opportunity to discuss the issue of clean water, the impact on agriculture and conservation and our rural communities.

Did you anticipate there would be this type of, I guess, concern and level of concern? Did it surprise you when you heard this or were you prepared for that?

I do worry, and the gentleman from Ohio brought up a great point, that we have to be very careful in doing this so that we don't disincentivize people that want to do this right.

I just--and I am trying to get this, and you are hearing the frustration.

The biggest mistake here was, it does not feel to me that there was enough of that input.

Now, that is very difficult for me to explain to my producers in any way possible, and you are not making that case.

If a farmer builds a fence that does not comply with NRCS standards, the cloud then is that he has violated the Clean Water Act.

we should show great concern that our producers are showing this level of concern

We need to keep in mind, that leaves about 250 million Americans who we have to educate about this process.

I just had a couple questions for me and for others listening who might not know this.

We are all open to new techniques. I have seen our folks work hand in hand with NRCS and we have heard great success stories.