Ron Kind: “For years, I have been leading the effort for farm bill reform to end these taxpayer subsidies going to a few but large…”

“For years, I have been leading the effort for farm bill reform to end these taxpayer subsidies going to a few but large agribusinesses that distort the market, distort trade policies. It's not helping our family farmers. Finally discussion is starting to take place seriously to actually scrub those programs. Yet when I've led this cause in the past, I remember not too long ago a Member in this body accused me of being the Osama bin Laden of agriculture policy. Yet today, if we had taken actions 10 years ago when many of us were acting on it, maybe we wouldn't be finding ourselves in this huge fiscal hole that we have today. So not only the policy riders but the spending cuts that are being proposed are the wrong direction for our Nation to go. It will jeopardize these vital programs--programs, again, that have enjoyed wide bipartisan support. We ought not be balancing the budget on their backs. Over the last 30 years, funding for conservation programs has gone from 1.7 percent of Federal funding to less than .6 percent. They get it at the altar of fiscal responsibility. We can't go any deeper. I encourage Members to support the Dicks amendment and oppose the underlying bill. We have to do a better job. I yield back the balance of my time.”