Farm, Nutrition, and Bioenergy Act of 2007
Floor Speech
FARM, NUTRITION, AND BIOENERGY ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - July 26, 2007)
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Mr. LUCAS. Madam Chairman, I thank the chairman and ranking member for this effort this evening.
I would have never thought that I would be standing on the floor of the United States House advocating ultimately a ``no'' vote on the farm bill. I would have never thought that. As a farmer from Oklahoma, as an individual with a degree in agricultural economics from Oklahoma State, I would have never thought that I would be advocating a ``no'' vote on a farm bill.
How did we get to this point? Let's remember, first and foremost, farm bills, while the goal is to help rural America, while the goal is to help make farming and ranching a thriving industry, the real goal is providing the food and fiber supply that feeds and clothes this Nation and the world. And since the 1930s, we have done an exceptional job with these farm bills, an exceptional job, and it has been a nonpartisan, nonpolitical process. We may disagree by region, we might disagree by commodity group, but it was always pulling together for the good of this country and the consumers that we serve around the world.
We have now come off of two extremely successful farm bills: the 1996 bill with its dramatic reform, flexibility in production decisions, certainty of payment; the 2002 farm bill, building on that with a safety net. Two very successful farm bills.
As a matter of fact, they were so successful that the amount of money set aside for the 2002 farm bill, we spent $60 billion less than was projected, and that was where we got into trouble, and that is what has got us to this point. Sixty billion dollars we saved, and we got not one penny's worth of credit for it.
So we began this farm bill process with $60 billion less than we had 5 years ago. That was a decision made by the senior leadership in the new majority. When you are $60 billion down and trying to move successful and popular programs forward, you have got problems. Chairman Peterson worked diligently. The entire committee worked diligently. But, ultimately, when we were not given credit, we had to depend on a massive tax increase.
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