Robert Smith: “Mr. LaHOOD. Mr. Speaker, notwithstanding the assault two weeks in a row by the chairman of the Committee on Rules, I am…”

“Mr. LaHOOD. Mr. Speaker, notwithstanding the assault two weeks in a row by the chairman of the Committee on Rules, I am glad that we are finally at the point where we can pass in a very bipartisan way this bill. I think some of us who have worked for the last year and a half in many ways dislike the tactics that were used to assault a bill that was passed in a very bipartisan way. I am glad that we are at the point now that I am sure it will pass overwhelmingly. I give a good amount of credit to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Combest) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Dooley) for the many hearings that they held, for wanting to reach out to every Member that had any interest in agriculture to say, give us good information and we will put a bill together. And they did that. And to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Smith) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm), our thanks to them, too. For me personally, I have one of the four ag research labs in my home town of Peoria. This bill means an awful lot. For agriculture it is just not growing corn and soybeans. Research is the future of agriculture well into the 21st century.”