On the recordSeptember 11, 2024
Madam President, I rise to join my colleague from West Virginia, talking about some of the important issues that we worked on over the past month. I am really pleased that she talked about the importance of getting a farm bill. It is just incredibly important. In my State of North Dakota, we are No. 1 as an ag powerhouse and then also an energy powerhouse. In the energy realm, we produced more than 1.2 million barrels of oil a day. That is as much as some of the OPEC countries for the whole country. And then we supply electricity to coal-fired and other sources of electricity that are probably in each region. So we are really an energy powerhouse, and that is a big part of our economy. But ag is still No. 1 for us. We produce probably more than 40 different crops, as diverse as--we are the No. 1 State for producing honey, and we produce a lot of sugar. But then we have got all the row crops--corn and soybeans and all those kinds of things. We have got wheat. We have got the pulse crops. We actually have more cattle than people--millions of head of cattle. So we are very diversified in the ag world. Needless to say, a farm bill is incredibly important to us, and it is incredibly important to our country. When I talk about farmers and ranchers and the farm bill, I like to start by saying that every single American benefits every single day from our farmers and ranchers, who produce the highest quality, lowest cost food supply in the world.…





