Political Quotes

“I rise to bring to the body's attention an amendment I have prepared that concerns a matter of fairness and equity to American farm policy. Very simply, my amendment would maintain the number of farmers eligible for Loan Deficiency Payments (LDPs) under language included in last year's Agricultural Risk Protection Act (Crop Insurance Reforms). The explanation for this need is as follows: for farmers to be eligible for LDP payments under the current farm bill, they must have had their land enrolled in farm program acreage back in 1986-91 crop years. This means that farmers that have decided to go into farming in the past ten years have not been eligible to receive loans or LDP's unless they have purchased farmland that was enrolled in the 1986-91 acreage. This would also include those farmers that did have acreage enrolled at the inception of the base acreage allotments, but later shifted acreage from another use into program crop production.”