Providing for Consideration of H.R. 2642, Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013

Floor Speech

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Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I want everybody who may be watching this or in earshot to understand that when the House of Representatives cannot pass a farm bill, we have reached a new low. The reverence in which we hold our farmers is so strong that the farm bill could almost be a part of the Pledge of Allegiance. I want to point out to you that this is the second time that this House is going to likely not be able to pass a farm bill.

I know I don't have to point out to my constituents on both sides of the aisle that the SNAP program, the nutrition program, the school lunch program, the Meals on Wheels and what we do to feed people in this country is also a farm program because, believe it, people, that's where the food comes from. So when you take those programs away, you also hurt the farmers.

We had a pretty offensive attempt here about 3 weeks ago to defund the program. So I do not trust, I'm sorry to say, the majority with trying to do something about this bill. In fact, I'll make a prediction right now. If they decide to bring up the nutrition program as a freestanding bill or anything from the Agriculture Committee, there's not a chance anywhere--it's better stated that way--that that could possibly pass the House simply because we had a lot of explaining here this morning. We were told that the fact that the Republicans took the SNAP and the nutrition program out of it would not be construed by the American people as if they're opposed to feeding people, it's just that they thought it was a piece of extraneous matter that they could deal with maybe in this some other way.

What a tragedy that is for all of us to have to go back home and try to explain to the people that we represent that this House--the most dysfunctional House in history--spending $25 million a week to operate the House of Representatives, that our biggest trick here is to pass a bill here that we know from the outset will never see the light of day. Almost all of them have Statements of Administration Policy that no way in the world would the President ever sign any kind of a bill like that.

Enough already. Enough. We've disgraced ourselves before the country. We have disgraced ourselves in front of the world. Now, we are raising a generation of children right now who have not been adequately----

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Ms. SLAUGHTER. I will just end up this way: I've been here a while. I've never seen anything this dysfunctional. I really am embarrassed to say today that trying to feed people could be a reason why they would stop the farm bill--which, as I said, has been a bipartisan bill, has gone through like a hot knife through butter ever since we started doing farm bills in the United States. This is the lowest of the low. When we can't pass this, you know, ladies and gentlemen, they can't run the House.

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