Virginia Foxx: “I want to thank my colleague, Mr. LaMalfa from California. I have heard him often speak on the floor. I have invited him…”

“I want to thank my colleague, Mr. LaMalfa from California. I have heard him often speak on the floor. I have invited him several times to speak and do 1-minute speeches because I am the person in charge of getting people to the floor. I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to hear him speak in a little longer time because I found out how much we agree on issues. {time} 1745 I am particularly keen about the water issue that he spent some time talking about. I grew up in a house with no electricity and no running water. I grew up carrying water. Water has always been a precious, precious commodity to me. We are the most fortunate people in the world in the United States that we have the greatest resources available to us. Many times I think we don't appreciate the scarcity of some of those resources or the need to husband those resources in a way that protects them not only for ourselves but for future generations. I have always felt that people who are farmers are among the most eloquent speakers for our environment. As Mr. LaMalfa said--and I completely agree with him and said it many times myself--farmers are the best stewards of our land. They believe in sustainability. They believed in sustainability long before sustainability became a catchword in the community because if they didn't keep the land sustainable, then they wouldn't have the land in order for their own livelihood. I am a person who also grew up farming, sometimes on a very small scale.…”