Dangers of Partisan Farm Bill

Floor Speech

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Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to make clear the dangers of a partisan farm bill that we are considering in the House Agriculture Committee this week.

Bipartisanship is not simply a buzzword. Bipartisanship is vital for policies to serve the widest range of Americans. Sadly, it is in short supply these days in our Capitol. The House Agriculture Committee has, for over 40 years, traditionally been a very bipartisan committee because our Nation's food supply affects everyone: rich and poor, farmers and consumers, Democrats and Republicans alike.

Our farm bill is America's food bill, and it needs to be about feeding all of us. I always say it is really a matter of our national security, yet the bill we are considering this week is, without question, a partisan farm bill.

We see this in how it fails to serve key parts of our Nation and abandons many of our food insecure. A partisan farm bill is bad policy, plain and simple. It will not succeed legislatively nor can it be implemented successfully.

I ask that we put aside these partisan differences, do as we have done traditionally, and work together to pass a bipartisan farm bill in the House and in the Senate that the President can sign.

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