Political Quotes

“My good friend, the chairman of the Agriculture Committee, is very erudite in his discussion against my amendment, but the facts are these: there is $250 million authorized in the farm bill--in his own bill. In this bill, there is $92 million in mandatory spending that is being appropriated, and I am not touching debt whatsoever. The mandatory spending has never gone out. I certainly know about farm dams and how flood control works. In fact, back in 1994, I was living in Americus, Georgia--I was practicing medicine there--and we had a hurricane that parked itself right over Americus, Georgia. In a 24-hour period, we had 25 inches of rain, and 30 people died in southwest Georgia because of the upstream dams' failing one by one in a fashion that was just like dominoes that were falling over. The water ran into Lake Blackshear, Georgia. Then it went from there down to Albany, Georgia, and there was a tremendous flood in Albany. All of southwest Georgia got flooded, and 30 people were killed because of it. I certainly know about that, and I have a great feeling for that, but the problem is that the mandatory spending has never been spent. What I am doing in my amendment is just striking the $25 million extra in discretionary spending. I believe that we ought to repair those dams. We need to help make sure that we have some flood mitigation, but we are not utilizing the authorized money or the appropriated money appropriately.…”