Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I have historically supported disaster assistance to farmers and others who experience losses due to no fault of their own. However, I had to vote no on Senator Scott's disaster relief standalone amendment. As a lifelong family farmer and taxpayer watchdog, I have fought for many years to close loopholes that have allowed some farming operations to exploit Federal farm payments at taxpayer expense. Congress has been generous when it comes to supporting farmers. Farmers have federally subsidized crop insurance, commodity payments, and supplemental disaster payments. Farmers also had access to Market Facilitation Program during the Trump administration and Coronavirus Food Assistance payments in the past couple years. The Scott amendment would remove any payment limit to the disaster supplemental payments. This is a dangerous precedent to set. This amendment would release the spigot of disaster payments to wealthy farmers without regard to how much total assistance we are providing, which could mean less funding for family farmers who really need the help most. I want a strong farm safety net program that helps farmers weather downturns in the market and survive natural disasters, but I do not want an unending stream of payments with no caps. This amendment aims to help large farms get large bailouts while small farmers are left behind.…”