Trade Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. President, the chairman of the Senate agriculture committee is on the floor, and I thank him for his tenacity and diligent work on behalf of America's farmers and rural communities.

I have discussed with the chairman his concerns about crop insurance provisions in the fiscal agreement and their impact on farmers, concerns which are shared by our counterparts in the House of Representatives. I also have concerns about the changes to crop insurance and what it will mean to the future farmers in my State. We have a big agricultural community in Kentucky, and I have certainly heard from them in great numbers over the past couple of days.

Farming has been a long tradition in my State. Kentucky is made up largely of smaller family farms--farms that have been passed down from generation to generation. These folks rely heavily on the notion that a bad-crop-yield year will not stop their ability to continue farming because of the certainty provided through this crop insurance program.

It is our joint understanding that the House leaders will work to reverse these crop insurance changes and find bipartisan alternative deficit reduction savings when they consider the omnibus appropriations bill later this year.

So I assure my friend from Kansas and the other Members of our conference who care about this that I will work closely with him to support the House in these efforts.

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