Jeff Fortenberry: “I would like to first recognize and thank my good friend, the chair of the Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural…”

“I would like to first recognize and thank my good friend, the chair of the Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies, my leader, Mr. Bishop from Georgia, for yielding me time. I also want to thank my colleague, Representative Axne from Iowa, for working in partnership together on this important amendment. Madam Chair, this is tough stuff. This was one of the most destructive weather events in our lifetimes. It was a perfect storm of factors that enabled and caused the dislocation and distress across many States and multiple communities where I live. In Nebraska and in Iowa, lands that were soaked by autumn rains were frozen solid, and then they were covered in snow. Then this bomb cyclone hit us with a lethal mix of blizzard, rain, and an enormous quantity of water, ice, and collected topsoil. It all sped down our rivers, creeks, and reservoirs, bursting through dams, levees, and other structures designed to hold the torrent back. As I said in our previous debate, it is pretty jarring to stand on a ridge and look at an Air Force base one-third under water which, again, sits at the confluence of the Missouri and Platte Rivers overlooking Iowa and Nebraska. The Corps of Engineers said to me that our levee system looks like Swiss cheese.…”