Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. PANETTA. Mr. Speaker, today, we, unfortunately, are enduring our government's second longest government shutdown since 1981.

I realize that some call it a partial government shutdown, but let me tell you, there is nothing partial about the lost wages that our Federal workers are encountering, there is nothing partial about the lost income that our small business owners are enduring, and there is nothing partial about the lost services that my farmers in the salad bowl of the world will experience during this shutdown.

That is why it has fallen on all of us in this Congress to make whole the victims of the shutdown. And it starts today by passing this Agriculture Appropriations act.

As a member of the House Agriculture Committee, I was proud to have passed and have signed into law the 2018 farm bill. But if this shutdown doesn't end soon, there are many provisions of that farm bill that will not be implemented.

Why? The USDA is closed, the Farm Service Agency is shuttered, agricultural research is suspended, organic certification programs are stopped, and families may not get their benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Those are just part of the problems with this partial government shutdown, a shutdown in which all of our farmers will be affected. That is why all of us in this government must do our job and live up to our responsibility to govern. Some may call it a charade. We call it governing. That is why I ask my colleagues to pass this Agriculture Appropriations Act.

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