Charles W. Stenholm: “I rise in support of H.R. 4620. H.R. 4620 was introduced by our colleague, the gentleman from Washington State (Mr.…”

“I rise in support of H.R. 4620. H.R. 4620 was introduced by our colleague, the gentleman from Washington State (Mr. Nethercutt). I have been contacted by the Texas Wheat Growers, the National Association of Wheat Growers, the Wheat Export Trade Education Committee and the USA Rice Federation in support of addressing an issue that has arisen in regard to the collection of assessments for State commodity research and education programs when the commodity in question goes under loan with the USDA. I want to thank the gentleman from Washington and the Washington Wheat Growers for bringing this situation to our attention before it impacted more States or more commodities. I am pleased to have worked with the chairman, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte), to report out a bill that the Committee on Agriculture fine-tuned in conjunction with USDA and the wheat industry. As a wheat farmer, I know the benefit our State wheat and other commodity promotion groups do on our behalf with checkoff funds, and I support this continued effort; and therefore, I am pleased to support this legislation.”