Charles Boustany: “first of all, I want to say, again, the Agriculture Committee worked in good faith and in a bipartisan way to come up…”

“first of all, I want to say, again, the Agriculture Committee worked in good faith and in a bipartisan way to come up with a good product, a good bill. We all patted ourselves on the back. We thought we had accomplished that. Now we see a tax provision that has been put into this at the last moment, a tax provision that has never been vetted. It is a complex tax provision that abrogates treaties. Furthermore, it is a tax provision that is going to hurt the very companies that produce pesticides and fertilizers that are helping our farmers. My farmers are trying to recover from Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. This provision is going to hurt them. This provision threatens this bill. Frankly, I am offended that we are here at this point in time. Furthermore, I had an amendment that would have addressed a problem in the bill with the Food Stamp Program. The States need adequate flexibility to create efficiency so that we can take care of our neediest citizens. That amendment was not allowed to go forward in this debate. It certainly deserves a full and open debate, as the previous speaker said. Our States need this flexibility. It is going to cost the State of Indiana over $100 million. Other States need this flexibility as well.”