Susan Collins: “I rise today to thank the Senator from Mississippi, the distinguished chairman of the Agriculture Appropriations…”

“I rise today to thank the Senator from Mississippi, the distinguished chairman of the Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, for so generously honoring my request to support the USDA-Agricultural Research Service's New England Plant, Soil, and Water Research Laboratory, which is located at the University of Maine. I am very pleased that the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee has recommended that this important agriculture research worksite be kept open, despite the administration's misguided attempt to close the facility and curtail its funding. I am also happy that the distinguished chairman has agreed to my request to provide a $300,000 increase in the lab's funding to hire new scientists at the Cropping Systems Center to develop production and disease management systems.”