Political Quotes

“I come to the floor troubled, considerably troubled by--and in opposition to the rule--by this Pigford settlement proposal that we've heard about just now. It was brought to my attention sometime after I was elected to Congress. I had a number of Iowa USDA employees that were deployed to Washington, D.C., and other locations to assist in administering the Pigford I settlement. They distributed $1.05 billion to African American farmers, some of whom were discriminated against. All of those that were discriminated against I would agree, I think with all of my colleagues, that they should be compensated to the degree that is practicable by law. However, as I sat down with the individuals that were administering the Pigford I settlement, and one of them came back with a box of file forms and applications sick to his stomach and told me that he had been compelled to engage in a practice that he believed was 75 percent fraudulent at a minimum, I thought that was a high and shocking number and put the information away until it emerged again and again in this Congress.”