Political Quotes

“in this supplemental, there is $40 million to deal with the citrus canker problem in Florida, a problem that the Department of Agriculture said could have been handled probably with $5 million had they jumped on it immediately. The Department of Agriculture now is saying if we do not jump on the plum pox virus problem again, we are not going to have a $5 million problem, we are going to have a several billion dollar problem. This citrus problem is probably going to cost at least $200 million. What has happened in Europe and what has happened in Spain and Chile is that their stone fruit crop was wiped out. If you happen to produce peaches, apricots, plums, cherries, almonds, avocados in your particular districts, they will be wiped out. I have four orchards in my district now. They had to destroy the entire orchard. You cannot destroy the infected tree. You have to destroy the entire orchard. They waited 10 years to get profit, all of a sudden they must burn that crop and must wait 2 years then to replant the trees and then wait another 5 years to get any profit from that production. The Department of Agriculture says it spends $6 million now to stop it in its tracks or let it spread through Washington, California, Michigan, Maryland, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Georgia and wherever else they grow peaches, prunes, apricots, avocados, et cetera.”