Neil Abercrombie: “Over the past 25 years in elective office, I have followed a rule: Where we make a contract, a legislative agreement…”

“Over the past 25 years in elective office, I have followed a rule: Where we make a contract, a legislative agreement, that we follow it. Mr. Chairman, we made an agreement for 7 years and we compromised. I did not want to have some of the provisions that we voted for with the sugar bill previously. It has been mentioned by other speakers, and it bears repeating as we close this debate, we had an overwhelming vote on this bill. An overwhelming majority decided that we were coming to an honorable compromise. To jeopardize it now by raising the issue once again on this one-cent change makes a devastating impact on those who depended on us keeping our word. A 7-year commitment is not very long when it comes to agriculture, when it comes to making banking decisions. When we talk about special interests, Mr. Speaker, I can tell my colleagues I do represent a special interest, the special interest of people living in Hawaii, in housing that they could not afford if they were not able to keep the jobs they have right now. We are standing up for those who are the field workers, for the farmers and producers. If we keep our word to them, then I think we can hold our heads high as legislators. Mr. Chairman, we are fighting against wage slavery in the rest of the world.”