Liz Saville Roberts: “I have been keeping notes of some of the comments made by my colleagues and friends across the aisle who have been…”

“I have been keeping notes of some of the comments made by my colleagues and friends across the aisle who have been making wild-eyed speeches. While I am sure this is not the best bill possible, I may vote for it, and some of those concerns I think certainly ring true in terms of just this gentleman's concern and frustration; but I would like the opportunity to, if not set the record straight, to at least play the record that I want to hear and let people make up their minds. No hearings, no hearings, no hearings, never had any hearings other than the 60,000 miles, the 19 hearings, and the 10,000 farmers and ranchers we visited with. Now it is true that the subject of those hearings was not a specific bill labeled 'Freedom to Farm,' but those hearings certainly served as a backdrop and a blueprint for that. No hearings? Well, we had a budget task force. We have tried to work together to try to reach our budget responsibilities in the past, and it became obvious that that was going to be very, very difficult for several reasons, No. 1, the budget number was really tough on the Republican side, but we were going to reach a balanced budget. That is the thing that really drove this debate, that is, to get to a balanced budget, save the farmer and rancher $15 billion.”