María Elvira Salazar: “I want to say first of all to my good friend from Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Tom Harkin…”

“I want to say first of all to my good friend from Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Tom Harkin, that there are few people who really understand the importance of rural America and agriculture in the way Tom Harkin does. There are very few people on the floor of the Senate today who can claim they still live in the same house in which they were born. Few people here can say they know the pain and suffering and the challenges, the hopes, and the optimism of rural America in the way Tom Harkin does. The best of what we have here in the Senate today we see in someone like Tom Harkin, who is here for the right reasons--standing up as a champion for agriculture, for rural America, and for America in general because he understands what is at stake. He understands that the food security of the Nation is at stake. Senator Harkin understands what is going on with respect to the oil addiction of America and foreign oil and the importance of American farmers and ranchers helping us to grow our way to energy independence.”