Tom Latham: “I do not know how to explain to my farmers in Iowa who last year were devastated by floods in southern Iowa going down…”

“I do not know how to explain to my farmers in Iowa who last year were devastated by floods in southern Iowa going down into northeast Missouri, what to tell those people, why a group of people, led by the leadership on the minority side, would stop a farm bill that would finally give them some hope, give them some income next year. Just continuing what we have now would give them no income next year. These people are going to be asked to pay back their deficiency payments. If you will remember just last week, we tried to put the farm bill on the continuing resolution and once again, because of the leadership of the minority party, they threatened a filibuster on the continuing resolution and thereby stopped the farm bill at that time. I am very discouraged at this point, because even though we were promised cooperation so that we could advance a farm bill, it was not brought forth from the minority. We will continue to work very hard and during the next few weeks to make sure that we do get an agreement, that we get a farm bill. It is needed very much for people who are in desperate straits at this time.”