Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, a lot has been said here today about the bipartisan nature of this legislation, but when it passed the House last week, a majority on both sides of the aisle voted for this farm bill, and three-quarters of all of the Members here did so. But we did so because there are provisions in this bill that are of interest to each side of the aisle, and sometimes there are very clear partisan differences. But nonetheless, the Republican side of the aisle received a number of concessions in the final negotiations of this bill: a provision that would have prohibited all 50 State food stamp programs to be able to reach out to technology companies and others to modernize and improve their food stamp program, something they have done many times in the recent past. A prohibition on that was removed from the bill. A provision in the bill that would have rolled back the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 and provided increased food stamps for able-bodied adults without dependent children was removed from the bill. Provisions related to the Davis-Bacon legislation that many Members on my side of the aisle, including myself, were concerned about were removed from the bill. So this is a bipartisan bill because it was compromise and give-and-take on both sides of the aisle. I have also heard Members complain that this bill is not fiscally responsible. It's less than the last farm bill.”