Frank Lucas: “I, too, must reluctantly rise and join in opposition with the ranking member of the committee, the gentleman from Texas…”

“I, too, must reluctantly rise and join in opposition with the ranking member of the committee, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm) to the Clayton amendment that would pull valuable dollars away from the safety net in order to increase funding in rural development programs, but I believe we have made a great, great step in the right direction in funding in this base bill. Consider for a moment that farm programs and rural development programs are interdependent on each other and if we take $1 billion over the next 10 years away from the farm safety net, that that will ultimately hurt those producers who live and work in the rural areas. One of the programs that this amendment would direct money to is the community water assistance grant program. While that is a very meritorious goal, I would like to point out that H.R. 2646 provides $30 million in mandatory funding per year for this program. Under existing law this is a discretionary program. It has never been fully funded in recent times, and recognizing that, the Committee on Agriculture increased and expanded the program to help address those needs of rural communities that have difficulty in providing safe and adequate quantities of drinking water.”