Eva M. Clayton: “Mr. Chairman, I have agreed to present my amendment with the understanding that the chairman is going to work with us…”

“Mr. Chairman, I have agreed to present my amendment with the understanding that the chairman is going to work with us during conference, and then I will withdraw it. But he has graciously allowed us to get the argument into the Record. This amendment is an en bloc amendment and has three phases to it. The first part is to indeed allow for justification for the outreach to small and disadvantaged farmers. The reason why we need these extra resources for small and disadvantaged farmers is because small farmers, all farmers are having difficulty, but small farmers and disadvantaged farmers and minority farmers are especially having difficulty. We are all aware of the issue around farmers not being able to get credit, farmers not being able to get the technical assistance, farmers not being able to keep up with the new technology. Well, providing monies to what we call the 2501 program allows them to do that. So we are asking for an increase to indeed have those resources. The second part of this amendment would include the research. Now, I understand that many people have problems where we are suggesting the money should be coming from. But the issue we want for our colleagues to understand on this, is that the research and extension for the 1890 institutions has been woefully underfunded.”