Henry Bonilla: “I stand in opposition to the Obey amendment. As working families in every corner of the country go to the grocery store…”

“I stand in opposition to the Obey amendment. As working families in every corner of the country go to the grocery store today, they will find about 10,000 items to choose from. In many cases, the overwhelming majority of the cases, they will find good prices for good food products that people can buy in this country. People take that for granted, not understanding how important our agriculture industry is to this country. To amend this bill and to hurt farmers eventually will hurt consumers as they try to buy food in the grocery store. I know in this day and age we have become a victim to a great degree of our materialistic success and as we go to buy food in stores many Americans think somehow it just comes from the back storeroom or from a truck that came down the road, but that all started out on a farm in some State in this country. To do this to our farmers is a sad commentary on what we are arguing about here today. The WIC Program is something that we all support. We on our subcommittee in a bipartisan way have supported increased funds for the WIC Program because it is important. But to demagog this issue in the way that it is being demagoged this morning is a real tragedy. I hope Members will look in their hearts and look for the truth in what we are debating about here today and support the position that we have taken on the subcommittee to fully fund crop insurance and fully fund the WIC Program.”