Lincoln Diaz-Balart: “Here is the sad truth which, by the way, everybody knows, unfortunately: This bill, if passed, will not reopen the…”

“Here is the sad truth which, by the way, everybody knows, unfortunately: This bill, if passed, will not reopen the Federal Government. By the way, how do I know that? Because this bill already passed last week. It is sitting in the Senate. It has not reopened the Federal Government. This is another false attempt to fool the American people. Some of the great Appropriations members of our time would be rolling in their graves right now if they knew that the House is taking up a Senate bill with zero input and zero amendments from any Member of the House--not one Member of the House. So, obviously, we should reject this flawed strategy. But I want to thank the ranking member, Mr. Aderholt, for speaking about some of the specifics. I want to just talk about a couple of specifics in this bill where it falls, frankly, very, very, very, very short. Let me talk about a couple issues that are very important to Florida. Citrus is a key, critical industry for Florida. This bill does not adequately fund citrus greening research. It falls seriously short on funding something that is so important for the survival of our farmers and the industry in Florida. Also, Mr. Speaker, it falls short on combating the oriental fruit fly, another critical issue for our farmers in Florida. We have to recall that Florida is still recovering from the devastation caused by recent hurricanes. This bill falls short in helping the farmers in the State of Florida.…”