Political Quotes

“Mr. Chair, I rise in strong opposition to this amendment. Cutting funding for the Natural Resources Conservation Service by an additional 8 percent will just, again, make it worse. This is a very important agency. It provides very valuable services to our communities as well as to our farmers. You have a number of programs that are so vitally important. They have the conservation innovation programs. They have the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, which helps farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners to integrate conservation into their working lands. They have the grants that support the development of new tools and new approaches, practices and technologies to further our natural resources conservation on private lands. They have the Conservation Stewardship Program, which builds on conservation efforts to strengthen the farmers' operations. They have the Emergency Watershed Protection Program, which is a Federal emergency recovery program that helps local communities recover after natural disasters strike. Look at what we have endured over the past year, the past 2 years. Communities have been struck by floods, wildfires, and hurricanes. We have problems, and the Watershed Rehabilitation Program is there. It needs to be fully funded, particularly this year with what we have experienced with climate change. They have watershed and flood prevention programs, the wetland reserve easements. We have to help with this.…”