Political Quotes

“While I deeply respect my friend and colleague from Oregon, I have a slightly different perspective on this because I think the bill that is before us today is absolutely the least that could be done to get the bill passed. It has a number of items I do support, like specialty crops, which I have been working on for some time. I am pleased that organics have an opportunity to get to crop insurance. But this bill, as I say, takes, allegedly, the savings from direct payments that have been opposed for years and plows them back into an enriched crop insurance program. It cuts $6 billion for conservation. Yes, there are some improvements in terms of administration, but at the end of the day, it cuts $6 billion when land and water is under pressure and needs it the most. This is shortsighted. It is very likely going to cost a lot more in the long run for the reasons my friend from Wisconsin pointed out in terms of setting these targets higher. It is more generous in terms of rejecting a provision that was included in both the House and the Senate version to limit payments to individual farms to $50,000. The conference committee increases the limit to $125,000 and reopens a loophole closed in both the House and Senate bills, allowing the payments to be collected by multiple people.…”