Liz Saville Roberts: “there is a sigh of relief all throughout farm country in regard to passage of this emergency assistance. We avoided a…”

“there is a sigh of relief all throughout farm country in regard to passage of this emergency assistance. We avoided a partisan train wreck, losing the money, taking the money from next year's farm bill, and or next year's emergency assistance. I regret that it came to this. This is a trail we really did not have to take. When you serve on the Agriculture Committee--and I have done that in the House and Senate--you have the opportunity to serve on one of the most nonpartisan committees in the Congress. With the events of the past week, I deeply regret what some have referred to as partisan milk that got a little sour and curdled a little bit. But, we have cleaned it up and we have made some progress. We have an old expression in my hometown of Dodge City, KS: If you are riding ahead of the herd, it's a good thing to take a look back now and then to make sure it is still there. I say to my colleagues, the reverse is also true. We have done that today. It is a good idea for both sides to take a look and tell your leadership when you are about to be driven off an emergency assistance cliff along with our farmers and ranchers. We avoided that today, and that is a positive step. We had the possibility of endangering emergency funding for our farmers and ranchers. I was worried some would have preferred an issue as opposed to a bill. We were about to saw off the branch that supports our farmers and hang all of us in the process. Here is the deal.…”