María Elvira Salazar: “let me at the outset say to my friend from Arizona and my friend from Oklahoma that I think in the years ahead…”

“let me at the outset say to my friend from Arizona and my friend from Oklahoma that I think in the years ahead, hopefully, we can embark on programs such as pay-go to make sure that both on the revenue side and the expenditure side of the program we are able to bring our budget into balance. I look forward to working with them on those issues in the future. Mr. President, I rise this afternoon to speak briefly, first, about the spending reconciliation conference report. The spending reconciliation conference report, from my point of view, falls short of making sure we are funding the most significant priorities of the American people. Now, today, there will be debate about many of the points over which there is disagreement. I wish to focus, very briefly, on two things that, to me, are very essential in terms of what we prioritize and fund in this Government for the American people. First, with respect to the forgotten America--with respect to agriculture, with respect to those counties and communities that are out there in every one of our States all across this great land of America, those communities that are mostly dependent on agriculture, where rural economic development means one job at a time and sometimes losing one or two jobs at a time, those communities that are withering on the vine--when I look at this reconciliation measure, what we have here is a $934 million cut for Conservation Programs.…”