On the recordJuly 18, 2017
I thank the gentleman for the perspective on corn. As someone who very much respects American agriculture, the worst thing is to have a drought. Around here, climate change is pretty controversial. We seem to slowly be moving in the recognition that it is real, whether we believe that it is caused by man or not. However, one of the things that we see around the world with climate change is the ever-increasing frequency of droughts. The existing language in the original bill says that droughts and lack of precipitation are not considered exceptional events. Certainly, if they weren't exceptional before, they are going to be even less exceptional as we move into the future. I appreciated the debate on the last amendment from my friend, Mr. Tonko, where he talked about the EPA Administrator saying: May, may, may. Well, this is a case where the last thing we want to do is make something like a drought a typical event. It is not going to be exceptional in the years to come. So, let's preserve these. The EPA Administrator will always have an opportunity in the case of a drought once every 100 years to say that is, in fact, exceptional. Mr. Chair, I urge adoption of this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.
