Harold Volkmer: “I would just like to take a couple of minutes to point out something, I think, for Members who have not served on the…”

“I would just like to take a couple of minutes to point out something, I think, for Members who have not served on the Committee on Agriculture and do not know that much about farm legislation. The old adage has been said here that this bill is basically a freedom to farm. Under the present law, under the law that we have had ever since I have been here for 19 years, every farmer has had a right to farm or not to farm. Every farmer has a right to not follow the provisions that we have put in this bill. He just does not get the payments. I have a lot of farmers that do not participate in the program. They do not have to participate. No farmer has ever had to participate. There is no requirement that any farmer participate in the current program. If he does participate, the Government just says you have to do certain things. And if you do those things, then you may be entitled to a payment, depending on what the prices are in the marketplace. That is all it has been. That is all it ever was. So every farmer has had that right to freedom to farm. The only thing, the difference between that program and this program basically is what the gentleman from Kansas wants to do is basically you do not have to farm and you still get your payment. That is what bothers me. It is not a little payment. We are not talking about $500 a month. We are not talking about $3,000. We are talking about up to $80,000.…”