Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010
Floor Speech
AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2010 -- (Senate - August 04, 2009)
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Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I have a lot of sympathy for the comments made by the Senator from Arizona. I think he has accurate points. My colleague from Wisconsin makes points, as well, about the program overall.
My point in rising is to say that the system is very difficult to change and to get things pulled out. That is why we have to change the system. What I have put forward for years is a proposal to take a BRAC-type process--the military base closing process--and have it looked at and make a recommendation to the Congress and then one vote on the entire package. That is a way we found to eliminate military bases.
When a program like this is started, or others, there are people who say: Wait a minute. This works for my district even if it doesn't work for somebody else. This is a high-priority project, even if it is not for somebody else. That system is such that it is built to spend, not built to cull, where you can cull things out and say this one doesn't look good, but this does, in trying to get it through a body of 100 people. We are trying to get an Agriculture appropriations bill through that we have not been able to get done in 3 years. We haven't had floor time for an Agriculture appropriations bill. We are trying to move this forward.
I think the Senator has some excellent points. We need to pass this sort of BRAC process for the rest of government so we actually do go at a culling process that everybody has faith in, which has worked before on military bases and we now can apply to the rest of government. That is a system where we can eliminate things, which we need to do in a number of areas. It is not going to happen on a one-shot-by-one-shot basis because some people say: This is a program that really works for my area. Then we get hung up on the floor with lengthy battles, and then we are never able to get the bill through.
I urge my colleagues--and I hope some on the majority side will look at this CARFA bill, we call it, to see about putting that in place so we can get at these in a systematic way that everybody is agreeable to.
I yield the floor.
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