Washington, Thursday, July 26, 2007

Floor Speech

WASHINGTON, THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2007 -- (House of Representatives - July 26, 2007)

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Mr. HOLT. Madam Chairman, I acknowledge and do not disparage the work of the committee. Let us consider, though, how much better we can do--for consumers, for the Northeast, for New Jersey, for specialty crop growers, for small farmers, for nutrition programs, for our common environment.

By shifting from obsolete programs the Kind amendment provides an additional $1.2 billion above the committee bill for fruit and vegetable growers--tripling the Farmer Market Promotion Program, making $500 million mandatory for Specialty Crop Research, making $150 million mandatory for Community Food Projects, and providing hundreds of millions of dollars for community supported agriculture, and the School Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program.

I want to emphasize that the Kind amendment would provide $3 billion more than the committee bill to conservation programs.

Support for the Kind amendment is broad and diverse including environmental and conservation groups, nutrition groups and groups that serve low-income Americans, specialty crop and organic farmers, and taxpayer groups. This is a sensible amendment. Indeed, the proposal by Mr. Kind, the gentleman from Wisconsin, is a remarkable, admirable legislative reform. I urge my colleagues to support it.

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