Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013

Floor Speech

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Mr. CUELLAR. Madam Chairman, I rise in support of the importance of passing the new 5-year farm bill into law.

I first want to thank Chairman Lucas for all the good work that he has done, and my ranking member, Mr. Peterson--I still call him my ranking member, Mr. Peterson--for all the work that he and the other members of the Agriculture Committee, in a bipartisan way, have done, including the staff that worked so hard to make sure that we get this farm bill done.

As you know, we did pass an extension, which was not the right thing to do, but we did an extension. We need to provide some sort of continuity with a 5-year program. As you know, this is something that needs to be done in a bipartisan way, and this is what the committee has done after having numerous bill hearings, after making some changes that provide some reform, reform that will save the taxpayers over $40 billion in funding over the next 10 years through important reforms to our commodity, conservation, and nutrition agencies.

I don't like the cuts to the nutrition, but I do understand this is a process. We have to get into a conference committee and work with the Senate. Therefore, I'm asking the Members to support the process and get this bill to where we can support it as bipartisan.

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