Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, on behalf of North Carolina farm families and really a lot of farm families who grow tobacco across the southeast, I rise this evening to offer my support for this conference report on H.R. 4520. The $9.6 billion buyout this bill provides to tobacco growers and quota holders will stave off the economic disaster that my tobacco farm families currently face in my district. Since 1997, North Carolina farm families and really other tobacco families throughout the southeast have seen their income cut roughly in half. This December they faced the prospect of another 30 percent cut in quota, and that will mean a resulting income loss. But this evening, a new day dawns for the American tobacco farmer. Eliminating the current quota system will make American tobacco leaf, the finest in the world, more competitive on the world market. In addition, the buyout will give many debt-ridden tobacco growers a chance to either retire with some dignity, invest in production of a different crop or restructure their current tobacco production. Almost $4 billion will flow into rural North Carolina during the next 10 years. Three-quarters of that billion will flow into my congressional district. This will have a tremendous transformative impact upon my mostly rural people.”