John Thune: “Well, Mr. Speaker, I thank both my friends and colleagues from the great State of Colorado for taking this issue up.…”

“Well, Mr. Speaker, I thank both my friends and colleagues from the great State of Colorado for taking this issue up. This is an issue which is important, obviously, to anybody who makes their living off the land. And one of the things I find is one of the biggest insults to people who actually are in the actual day-to-day business of farming and ranching and involved in natural resource industries is to suggest that they are not concerned about conservation. When the gentleman was discussing the environmental burdens and the regulations that the government imposes on people who are trying to make a living at that, I could not help but think of a lot of the small independent farmers and ranchers in my State of South Dakota and the cost that is associated with those burdens. We talk right now about prices being in the tank, which they are, and it is very difficult for small independent farmers and ranchers to make a living today. And, obviously, that is something that we are going to have to address as well. Frankly, one of the reasons we are not doing so well is because we have failed in a couple of important things, and one is opening export markets. We made a commitment, when the last farm policy was put in place, that we would aggressively open export markets. We have not done that. We do not utilize the tools that are in place and, furthermore, I think that this is a basic failure in our farm policy today.”