Marcy Kaptur: “I just want to thank Congressman Honda, the ranking member, for yielding me just a brief moment here to oppose this…”

“I just want to thank Congressman Honda, the ranking member, for yielding me just a brief moment here to oppose this amendment and put comments on the record. I oppose the Gosar amendment and the cuts to the United States Botanic Garden. Unless you've actually walked through the aisles and looked at the extraordinary collections, and exhibits, including specimens that preserve the genomes of extinct plants; and if you haven't really understood why medical science depends on many of the medicinal plants that are held there for posterity; and if you haven't really appreciated the importance of the botanical sciences to human life; and if you haven't understood the work of the Botanic Garden that links to hundreds of communities across this country trying to help communities raise food, even inside urban borders and food deserts-- then you really can't come to appreciate the importance of the fragility of life and how significant this botanical collection is to our country. This is a collection and capability that has been understood since George Washington's time over decades and indeed centuries. Our predecessors appreciated the importance of botanical sciences to human life even with science as rudimentary as it was at our Nation's founding. The site itself is nestled right adjacent to the Capitol, demonstrating the importance to the American people that those who came before us understood--the importance of the linkage between human life and plant life.…”