Political Quotes

“If I might have the attention of the distinguished chairman and ranking minority member of the Agriculture Committee for a brief colloquy. As both the chairman and ranking member know, section 1704 of the 1985 farm bill, Public Law 99-198, requires the Secretary of Agriculture to perform random spot checks of potatoes entering the United States through ports of entry in the northeastern United States and to report annually to the Agriculture Committees of the House and Senate on the results of the spot checks. Under those provisions, USDA has conducted a program of spot inspections along the Maine-Canadian border for the past several years and has reported annually to the House and Senate committees the results of such inspections. During consideration of the 1990 farm bill, it was the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in a July 2, 1990 letter from then-- USDA general counsel, Alan Charles Raul, that section 1704 was permanent legislation that did not require reauthorization in the 1990 farm bill. I would ask the floor managers if this history conforms to their understanding of the annual random checks undertaken by USDA under section 1704 of the 1985 farm bill?”