Political Quotes

“I rise in opposition to the Farm Security Act conference report (H.R. 2646). I appreciate the work of the Agriculture Committee to bring a bill to the floor, but this effort falls short of real reform for our farm programs and seriously infringes on our trade policy. I supported the Freedom to Farm Act in 1995. It set us on a path-- slow but steady--toward removing the heavy and costly hand of government in managing crop programs. Subsidies were to become a thing of the past. Unfortunately, this bill reverses that course. It sets us on a path toward increased and never-ending taxpayer subsidies of basic commodities. In addition, this legislation is incompatible with our commitments to the World Trade Organization, and I am not alone in this opinion. Let me read some excerpts from a Congressional Research Service report that was issued just a few days ago: The 1994 Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture commits member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to discipline their domestic agricultural support programs . . . The goal of the Agreement is to ``establish a fair and market-oriented agricultural trading system'' through a series of reforms that also require WTO members to lower barriers to agricultural imports and to reduce their farm export subsidies.…”