Political Quotes

“I continue to believe the way to get the assistance to the farmers in the most expeditious way possible is to vote for the Cochran amendment. The reason for that is, the counties that have been declared disaster counties are already a matter of record. With these computer programs that the Department of Agriculture has, sometimes it takes time to get to a point where you can actually send out checks if new information is going to be included in that program. Farmers would have to come in and sign up for benefits. The Department of Agriculture, through the Farm Service Agency offices around the country, would have to gather that information, process it, and submit it to the Department here. I think it is not unreasonable to expect there to be months that go by before the checks would actually go to the farmers who need the help; whereas, in the Cochran amendment the funds would go out much more expeditiously--I think in a matter of weeks. That has been the experience in the past disaster situations where we have followed this kind of benefit program.”