National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019--Conference Report

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOEVEN. Madam President, I want to thank my colleagues for advancing these appropriations bills, specifically the ag appropriations bill.

I also want to thank Senator Merkley, my ranking member on the committee. Throughout the process, we have had open communications and have worked to advance the bill and to address amendments brought forward by our colleagues.

I also want to thank specifically Senator Merkley's staff--Jessica Schulken, Dianne Nellor, and Bob Ross--for their work, as well as my crew--Carlisle Clarke, Patrick Carroll, Elizabeth Dent, Dan Auger, and Brita Endrud.

This has been a process that has involved other subcommittees as well. I want to thank all of those who have worked on these appropriations bills, including Senator Collins and Senator Reed and their staffs on the Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development Subcommittee; Senators Murkowski and Udall and their staffs on the Interior bill; Senators Lankford and Coons on the Financial Services Subcommittee.

This has certainly been a deliberative process--again, the way regular order is supposed to work. More than a dozen amendments that affected, for example, our agriculture bill have been accepted over the course of the bill. We voted on others. So I am glad that we have had the open debate and been able to advance these bills, and, of course, particularly the Agriculture appropriations bill.

I will just conclude with what I always like to remind people of whenever we talk about agriculture, and that is good farm policy. It benefits every single American every single day because what our farmers and ranchers do is they produce the highest quality, lowest cost food supply in the world, which benefits every American every day.

I thank the Presiding Officer.

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