Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I first wanted to comment on the importance of an agreement on the farm bill. This is something that has been long in coming. I want to thank Chairman Roberts and Ranking Member Stabenow for their work, as well as the Members in the House, including my colleague from Minnesota, Republican leader Collin Peterson. He will be taking over the Ag Committee in the House next year. This is a bill that is so important to rural America and in my State. We have seen low commodity prices for too long. As a member of the Ag Committee, I know the last farm bill--the one we are operating under currently--has some things for a strong safety net, but this farm bill--the new tentative agreement--will allow us to make some changes to the way the data is collected, which will be helpful for our farmers with crop insurance. We have some improvements in dairy. We have some good work that is going on with regard to conservation and some changes there. As you know, our Senate bill got 86 votes. We don't even get that for a volleyball resolution around here. It was a bipartisan bill, and much of that bill, I know, will be contained in this tentative agreement. ``Tentative'' is with a small ``t,'' and the only reason we are saying that is because we have to get the printed version out, and my hope is, we can get this done in the next week.…”