Sanford Bishop: “This amendment should be defeated. It will cut funding for the Rural Business-Cooperative Service by an additional 44…”

“This amendment should be defeated. It will cut funding for the Rural Business-Cooperative Service by an additional 44 percent. Agricultural cooperatives provide effective marketing and local supplies and services to their member-owners. Cooperatives bring electricity, eConnectivity, affordable housing, capital, financial services, telecommunications, healthcare, food, hardware, building supplies, and countless other goods and services for people who live in rural communities. An example for electricity: There are 900 co-ops, electric membership cooperatives, that serve 42 million people in this country in 48 of the 50 States, and they cover 51 percent of the land area in the United States of America. {time} 2230 We need the Rural Business-Cooperative Service to help support these rural co-ops that help bring business and help marketing in our rural communities. Agriculture is a very, very lucrative business, it happens in our rural communities for the most part, and we need this cooperative service and we need the support for it. Mr. Chair, this is a bad amendment. It is penny-wise and pound- foolish, and I urge its defeat. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.”