Charles W. Stenholm: “Mr. Chairman, we are now having another demonstration of what has been so frustrating to the House Committee on…”

“Mr. Chairman, we are now having another demonstration of what has been so frustrating to the House Committee on Agriculture as we have moved to get to this point. We had 60 amendments notified and here we are, none of the Members who felt compelled to make amendments and change are here to offer their amendments. Under House procedure, what we should do is we should move to final passage of the bill, because obviously, all of those who have felt so compelled to argue and to offer amendments are nowhere to be found. So we feel compelled now to take 5 minutes to talk about whatever we are going to talk about. Really, I guess we have the Boswell amendment, we could vote on it; but I understand that is not what they want to do. So let me make a comment or two. I did not get recognized on the Boswell amendment a moment ago. Let me take just a moment and talk about the energy section of the bill that is before us. Mr. Chairman, it was not but about 2 years ago that we had a depression not only in the corn and cotton patch, but also in the oil patch. At that point in time, since I represent the cotton patch and the oil patch, I was concerned about low energy prices, I was concerned about energy and energy policy as a national security; and that concern is still there.”