Political Quotes

“I thank the gentlelady. When parts of Texas endure an extreme drought, the burden is felt most heavily by our farm families. A devastating lack of water left many of our counties parched. Sam Berry, a rancher from Lavaca County wrote me to say: ``After back-to-back bad seasons and with all my reserve hay gone, how much worse could it get''? Well, as bad as that drought was down in Texas, it is nothing like the drought of understanding for the plight of farmers and ranchers here in Washington. They have faced indifference on top of indifference. Federal disaster assistance dried up. I received similar pleas from farmers and ranchers like David Wagner in Lavaca County and others from Bastrop County and Caldwell County and Fayette and Colorado counties. The last Congress, with $10 billion to burn every month in Iraq, had nothing to offer these ranchers here at home. When our new Congress finally passed emergency help this March, that help was vetoed by the President. The bill that we pass today is another attempt to provide much-needed assistance to these farmers and ranchers. I know that ranching looks mighty easy over in the Oval Office when some over there seem to think that clearing out brush in August is vacation work. But for those for whom ranching is not a hobby, who have found that their fields turned fallow; for those like Pat Peterson of Red Rock whom high-priced hay means selling their best livestock, disaster endangers a life and a livelihood.”