Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2019
Floor Speech
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Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Mr. Speaker, here is the sad truth which, by the way, everybody knows, unfortunately: This bill, if passed, will not reopen the Federal Government.
By the way, how do I know that? Because this bill already passed last week. It is sitting in the Senate. It has not reopened the Federal Government. This is another false attempt to fool the American people.
Some of the great Appropriations members of our time would be rolling in their graves right now if they knew that the House is taking up a Senate bill with zero input and zero amendments from any Member of the House--not one Member of the House. So, obviously, we should reject this flawed strategy.
But I want to thank the ranking member, Mr. Aderholt, for speaking about some of the specifics. I want to just talk about a couple of specifics in this bill where it falls, frankly, very, very, very, very short. Let me talk about a couple issues that are very important to Florida.
Citrus is a key, critical industry for Florida. This bill does not adequately fund citrus greening research. It falls seriously short on funding something that is so important for the survival of our farmers and the industry in Florida.
Also, Mr. Speaker, it falls short on combating the oriental fruit fly, another critical issue for our farmers in Florida.
We have to recall that Florida is still recovering from the devastation caused by recent hurricanes. This bill falls short in helping the farmers in the State of Florida.
But as I said at the beginning, Mr. Speaker, if that wasn't enough, this is all a charade.
By the way, do you know what the sad part is, Mr. Speaker? I am going to be proven right.
Last week, a lot of us said that about those bills that our friends on the other side of the aisle said were going to reopen the government. Do you know who was proven right and who was proven wrong? We are going to be proven right again.
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Mr. DIAZ-BALART. This is a sham. I would ask, respectfully, to defeat this bill, which is a charade, a sham, and will not open the Federal Government. Everybody knows that. Everybody knows that it will not reopen the Federal Government. It doesn't have any input from the House and falls shorts for Florida farmers and other farmers around the country.
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