Thomas Mott Osborne: “I rise to congratulate Chairman Larry Combest on a long and successful congressional career. I was privileged to serve…”

“I rise to congratulate Chairman Larry Combest on a long and successful congressional career. I was privileged to serve on the Committee on Agriculture under Larry. We were certainly at opposite ends of the spectrum. My first 2 years on the committee were Larry's last 2. I was without status. He was the chairman. Regardless of seniority, each person had access to Larry and his staff on an equal basis. I have always felt that the true measure of a person's character was how he treated those who could do nothing for him. In that respect, I thought that Larry was really exemplary and I really appreciated the way I was received. The most significant accomplishment of the Committee on Agriculture the last 2 years was reauthorization of the farm bill. This was a very exhaustive process. It went on over 2 years, involving roughly 50 hearings, 25 of those in various parts of the country and 25 here in Washington. Input was received from such diverse groups as the Farm Bureau, Farmers Union, corn and soybean, rice and cotton, fruits and vegetables, Ducks Unlimited, Nature Conservancy and the Sierra Club. Everybody had a chance. What the chairman did was ask each group to write the farm bill as they saw it needing to be written and also to score it, to come up with what it was going to cost; and so this was kind of a unique approach because I think everybody that tried began to realize how complex this was. Again, he took input from every group.”