Political Quotes

“Mr. Chair, over the past two decades, our country and the agriculture industry have grown. Our population has grown, yet this bill initially withdrew funding for America's agriculture, as you have heard, back to 2006 funding levels with an allocation of $17.1 billion, which is nearly $8 billion below last year's enacted bill. Sadly, we are here tonight with a bill that the majority made even worse this past weekend by gutting Congress' commitment to American farmers, producers, rural communities, and families to levels last seen in 2001. This bill keeps moving in the wrong direction. Also, many of the amendments that we will be debating tonight, which lower this allocation much lower than the American people need, will be an attempt to circumvent the ongoing negotiations in the House authorizing committee, the Agriculture Committee, which is working so desperately to get our farmers, our rural communities, and our lenders in America our 2023 farm bill, which is the blueprint that our farmers and our stakeholders need to plan for agriculture in America going forward. This will jeopardize the consensus that we hope to build and to pass for the 2023 farm bill. Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to defeat this bill. Let's send it back to the committee, and let's begin to put together a better work product for the American people. This bill is a disgrace. It really does not rise to the level that the American people deserve.…”