Duncan Faircloth: “I have few superlatives that I can claim as a Member of the Senate, but one of them is that I have spent 52 years in…”

“I have few superlatives that I can claim as a Member of the Senate, but one of them is that I have spent 52 years in active agriculture, farming, and in all phases of it. I would be hard pressed to find the crop or the livestock interest that I have not, at one time or another, been involved in. North Carolina is home to some of the most productive and largest farms in the Nation and the finest agricultural research universities, by far, in the Nation. I don't think that I play second fiddle to any Senator in support for reauthorization of the agricultural extension bill. It is critical to the farmers of this country and to the universities and the ag research universities. But the bill also makes important reforms to the Crop Insurance Program that will benefit farmers and taxpayers. Planting season is here, and we need to get it settled, and I am ready and anxious to do it. However, despite what I have just said, let me add, I don't play second fiddle to any Senator in my support of real welfare reform. Workfare, not welfare, was the platform I ran on for the Senate in 1992. The 1996 welfare reform bill, although watered down, was a real accomplishment for the 104th Congress. I preferred the first two bills that were vetoed by the President, but the third was still a good bill. That is why I am so disturbed that we are gutting the welfare reform and doing it in an agricultural research bill. This bill restores food stamps for 250,000 immigrants.…”