Cotton Votes for True Farm Bill

Statement

Last month, I voted against a Food Stamp Bill; today, I voted for a genuine Farm Bill. I promised during my campaign to change the way Washington works. For 40 years, farm programs have been chained to the food-stamp program. We've now finally broken this needless link. Rather than a bloated, $940 billion dollar bill that was 80% food stamps, we now have a Farm Bill focused squarely on farmers.

This bill isn't perfect, but it moves in the right direction. It still spends too many taxpayer dollars on, for instance, wasteful marketing policies and green-energy programs, and it even authorizes a tax on Christmas trees. But it also frees Arkansas farmers and foresters from onerous EPA regulations and improves management in Arkansas's national forests.

I look forward to working with my colleagues to continue improving this legislation. I trust the Senate Democrats, having already voted for very similar farm programs, will support speedy passage of this bill and not insist upon holding Arkansas farmers hostage to Barack Obama's wasteful food-stamp program. The Congress will work to reform food stamps at a later date, but it should pass a Farm Bill now.

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