William Pryor: “as many others have said today, it is difficult for me on a personal level to speak against this amendment because I…”

“as many others have said today, it is difficult for me on a personal level to speak against this amendment because I have such great respect for the two sponsors of the amendment. However, let me say this to my colleagues who are here, or the staff watching on C-SPAN 2 right now, for the Senators and staff who are looking at this amendment and thinking about previous votes they have made on this same subject and wondering what the differences might be between this and other votes they have cast, there is one major difference and that is the context of this vote. The context of this vote is in a reform bill. Previous votes have been, as we have talked about earlier, in budget bills, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. This one is in an agriculture reform bill. The farmers in our section of the country have given up a lot. What we have given up goes into nutrition programs, goes into conservation, goes into energy, rural development, and new programs for specialty crops. When we talk about adjusted gross income, the hard cap in this bill that came out of committee, the three-entity rule reform, all are major gives by farmers in our section of the country. Quite frankly, if this amendment is adopted, I believe it will destroy the American cotton and rice industry. We will continue to use cotton and rice, but it will increase our trade deficit. We will import it from other parts of the world.”