Political Quotes

“I want to thank the gentleman from Iowa, Steve King. It was some months ago when Steve King had first told me about the situation with Pigford. He has been investigating and looking into this matter for probably about 3 years now. He is very interestingly situated by having a seat on both the Judiciary Committee and the Agriculture Committee, and both of those committees have something to do with this case. I want to go back to basics for just a moment, if I can, because, as Congressman King was giving me details about this case, on every level, it just didn't add up. He had talked a little bit about the reparations angle, and that, of course, was an opinion that was written by Judge Friedman in the very first class certification case with Pigford, Pigford I. That was about $1 billion of tax money that went out to the claimants. This is now a situation called Pigford II. As Congressman King rightly said, there is no judgment. This is simply something negotiated around a table with, I believe, Attorney General Eric Holder and, I believe, with Tom Vilsack, Ag Secretary. They got together and came up with an agreement. They came up with this settlement, but here is part of the problem. I am a former Federal tax litigation attorney, Madam Speaker.”