Jack Kingston: “I thank Chairman Rogers for the time. I've enjoyed working with him and Ranking Member Dicks, and also the ranking…”

“I thank Chairman Rogers for the time. I've enjoyed working with him and Ranking Member Dicks, and also the ranking member of our Subcommittee on Agriculture, FDA, and Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the gentleman from California, Mr. Sam Farr. We've held 11 hearings, and we've had probably about 25 hours worth of debate on the floor in which over 50 amendments were offered. This bill is a prime example of what can happen when we get back to regular order. {time} 1520 It was an open process, passed by the subcommittee, full committee, and then finally by the House floor. The bill is $350 million below FY11 in the discretionary portion, and $2.5 billion lower than the President's request for FY12. It is compliant with the Budget Control Act, and a step to show both regular order, compromise and moving us towards a balanced budget. I also wanted to point out something, Mr. Speaker, that the mandatory portion of this bill is tremendous. Our discretionary total on agriculture is $19.77 billion, but the mandatory is $116.9 billion. School lunch and breakfast and the SNAP program are $98.5 billion alone. If we do not get control of the mandatory spending, we will never be able to balance the budget. So I urge all Members of Congress to be cognizant of that and work in the important authorizing committees to do some of the reform.…”