DENNIS A. CARDOZA

We must begin to address health and nutrition in ways like never before, increasing the accessibility of fruits and vegetables for public consumption.

My objective today is straightforward. We are here to assess what is working, what is not working and how we can improve upon the historic 2008 Farm Bill effort on behalf of specialty crops and organic agriculture.

As we all know, our country is facing enormous troubles like we have not seen since the Great Depression. At the national level, there is clear evidence that some of the actions that the Democratic Congress have taken are, in fact…

I understand that the gentlelady and her party don't understand what's happening in Middle America. They don't appreciate what's happening to folks like in my district. They may not hang out in places like my family's bowling alley, where…

I look at today's Hill newspaper and I look on page 31. And I oftentimes believe that cartoons and political satire speak much more clearly than the words that we can use in big long speeches. And in today's cartoon, although I can't say…

What is not open to debate is the fact that 1.7 million Americans today and over the next 3 days and over the last few weeks have lost their unemployment benefits. That is an emergency. That's why we have emergency spending provisions. We…

I would like to close today by discussing a little bit of what the gentlelady just talked about with regard to PAYGO. I'd like to point out that I'm quite sure that the gentlelady from North Carolina did not vote for the PAYGO resolution…

I would like to take this time to correct the statistics and the statements that we just heard from my colleague from North Carolina. My colleague forgets that in the Clinton administration we created-- not ``we,'' because I wasn't…

Congressional Republicans threaten to take us back to the failed policies that created the economic crisis, siding with special interests, i.e., the Wall Street investment banks. These economic and fiscal policies created the Bush…

In recent weeks we have seen a small but slow and steady improvement in the national housing market while other parts of the country, like my congressional district in the San Joaquin Valley, have continued to deteriorate. I have…

I rise today in support of the Pingree amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act. I believe today we must stand firmly on the side of fiscal responsibility and refuse to fund a redundant engine that our military leaders and our…

Madam Chair, while unemployment is still at a record high in my district, the reauthorization of the America COMPETES Act is an important opportunity for us to invest in creating a brighter, more resilient economic future. Manufacturing is…

My wife has been a family doctor for 20 years and comes home every single night telling me stories about her patients who have paid their premiums, but when they get sick and need coverage, they're denied the care by the same companies who…

Few regions in the Nation are suffering more from the recession than the San Joaquin Valley of California. The three biggest cities in my district--Merced, Stockton, and Modesto--have some of the highest foreclosure and unemployment rates…

I find it a bit ironic that my friends on the other side of the aisle are so outraged by this procedure that's been done routinely by both Republican- and Democratic-controlled Congresses. The blanket waiver is to allow maximum flexibility…

I will just respond by saying that I'd love to work in a bipartisan way. But you need partners in a bipartisan process. Frankly, we've seen more push-back and diversion and obfuscation of the details and the merits of this legislation. A…

Reclaiming my time, in response to the statement of the gentleman, I would just say that, yes, these are used for extraordinary situations, like when 200,000 people are put out of work because of a Senate filibuster for no particularly…

Nineteen, on behalf of the package, the jobs bill that we're contemplating bringing up tomorrow. Now, this illustrates the point that we've been frustrated for a long time. The gentleman is correct that both his district and my district…

In just Texas and California, there were 33,000 cases reported to the committee in one year. If that is not a statistic that can make your hair curl, I don't know what is. Even Ranking Member Kline said that we are in urgent need of…

I'd like to thank the gentlewoman from North Carolina for engaging with me today and my colleague from California in the discussion that we've had on both the underlying bill and the question of the need to bring jobs to the United States…

I would submit to my colleague from California that we must get this legislation done. I agreed with him. He agreed with me. This is very important legislation. It's critical to the country. Then he said, well, there is no real rush…

The gentleman is correct, and there are other measures, like the jobs bill, which is critically important, critically important to our home State.

Like my district, it has got 20 percent unemployment. So there are other pressing matters that we have to get to, and that's exactly the kind of point that I was making.

But to simply continue to extend credit to an industry that is not able to pay their bills now would just simply create a problem where we are digging ourselves in a deeper hole.

H.R. 1549 will have detrimental effects, not only on our farmers who feed the world safe and wholesome meat and meat products, but also on public health.