Political Quotes

“Mr. President, today I submitted a resolution with my friend, Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi, to recognize and celebrate the importance of cooperatives to our economy, and our rural communities in particular. In 2009, the United Nations General Assembly officially declared 2012 as ``The International Year of Cooperatives'' through a resolution calling on governments to recognize the important role cooperatives play in providing economic opportunity for millions of people in the United States and throughout the world. Our resolution highlights the impact of cooperatives and encourages the development of programs, both here and abroad, for cooperative development. The Capper-Volstead Act of 1922 was the first legal protection for the cooperative business model in which a business is democratically controlled and owned by its members and operates for the mutual benefit of its members. The membership of a cooperative is comprised of the individuals who use the business' services or buy its goods. The Capper-Volstead Act was originally enacted with the purpose of legally empowering farmers to pool their marketing resources and to improve farmers' bargaining power with the buyers of their products. The cooperative business model has since expanded to other areas of the economy, and has contributed significantly to economic growth in rural communities. A recent study from the University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives found that today, 29,000 U.S.…”