Sherwood Boehlert: “I want my colleagues to know one of the reasons I am proceeding is we are trying to draft the language for the…”

“I want my colleagues to know one of the reasons I am proceeding is we are trying to draft the language for the perfecting amendment, so we can all appreciate that sometimes takes a little time. We have got great scholars and wizards in the back room doing that. But the fact of the matter is, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Latham was here on the floor, my good and distinguished colleague and great friend from Iowa telling us of the problems of American agriculture. I serve as the chair of the Subcommittee on Water, Resources, and the Environment. We had a hearing in upstate Utica, NY, on this very subject, exclusively devoted to that subject of nonpoint-source pollution. We have talked to agriculture. Agriculture likes this initiative. They want us to get it in part of the final language, and so do I. So I know nobody, that, really sincerely, when they evaluate all the facts of this, would argue that we should turn our backs on American farmers. I am not going to do so. I am privileged to serve as chair of the Northeast Agriculture Caucus. In that capacity I work with my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to listen to America's farmers, to work with them. I want to help them, and the perfecting amendment I am suggesting would be very much in order and would help them.”