Mike Thompson: “to the question of fundamental fairness, I am convinced that if this proposition is put before this body, that if, in…”

“to the question of fundamental fairness, I am convinced that if this proposition is put before this body, that if, in fact, the record says that these individuals have, in fact, been aggrieved by an Agency of the United States Government, and we cannot provide relief to them because of a little something called the statute of limitations, and we have provided relief in other situations for other individuals. I look at this as a similar position. Farmers have been done wrong. We have documented the wrongdoings of the Department of Agriculture. The Secretary of Agriculture would like to resolve the problems. Now, another branch of government decides that they know more about agriculture than the Department of Agriculture and they will become, if we please, 'the new plantation' which is about the business of making black farmers extinct in this country. So in the interest of fairness, we can resolve it, Madam Speaker, but it will take people of goodwill, as I said earlier, sitting down, reviewing the facts.”