Ron Kind: “Mr. Speaker, I certainly appreciate the comments of my good friend from Oklahoma and the hard work that he has done. But…”

“Mr. Speaker, I certainly appreciate the comments of my good friend from Oklahoma and the hard work that he has done. But these are two individuals who serve on the Agriculture Committee. In fact, my friend from Pennsylvania is the Chair of the subcommittee in charge of this conservation title. My friend from Oklahoma is the ranking member of the subcommittee in charge of the conservation title. All we are asking them and the conferees from the House to do is to protect their programs and to protect their funding level, that which was contained in the House-passed version of the farm bill last year. That is a simple request, and it received good support in the House when it left last year. But there is an additional wrinkle that was just introduced, to my knowledge, within the last 24 hours, and that is the consideration to start capping payments under the conservation title. I think that would result in bad policy. I think it is going to result in a lot of unintended consequences, because these conservation practices aren't marketable, unlike the subsidies going to commodity crop producers, where they grow something and they can sell it in the marketplace.”