Sam Farr: “I rise in favor of the motion to instruct conferees. I rise because I represent a lot of farmers in California, farmers…”

“I rise in favor of the motion to instruct conferees. I rise because I represent a lot of farmers in California, farmers who traveled with me to Cuba a month ago, people who want to sell what they grow to the Cuban Government, to the Cuban people. The irony is that it is not the Cuban Government that will not let them sell it to them, it is our government. That is why they are asking us to instruct these conferees to lift what they consider just un-American restrictions on their ability as businesspeople in this country who grow food for people, regardless of their political affiliation, and see that that food can be sold to Cuba. In fact, the rice farmers from California and the wine grape growers from California that were with us indicated that they had sold, the rice growers had sold rice to Cuba, were very pleased with the sale, had gotten paid in a timely fashion and President Castro asked them right across the table, 'I'll buy a billion dollars more of American product if you will get your licenses to sell.' So that is what this is about. It is about getting the ability for American farmers to sell their crops. What does it mean to a place like California? We looked at what we could trade in Cuba. It comes out to about $98 million in lost trade of the products that we produce in California that we could be selling to Cuba. About $280 million would be to agricultural-related industries.”