Going Home is Unacceptable

Floor Speech

Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I have a simple question: Why are we going home in August? It's really not a rhetorical question.

All across southern Minnesota and across this country, farmers and ranchers have been up for hours quietly going about their business of feeding, clothing, and powering the world; and here we sit a year later without a farm bill to give them the certainty they've asked for.

We disagreed on how the farm bill was done here, but this House passed one, the Senate passed one; and just like that Saturday morning cartoon, ``I'm just a bill sitting on Capitol Hill,'' we have to get together to finish that. That's called a conference. The Senate appointed their conferees. All you have to do, Mr. Speaker--very seldom do you get this simple choice--is appoint conferees and finish our business for America or go on vacation. That's the choice you get today.

I taught sixth grade for many years. The rule in our class was you don't go to recess until you finish your work. I often hear from my friends that we need to run government like a business. What business owner shuts the door and goes home before finishing critical work?

Appoint conferees, finish the farm bill, give certainty, do your work that we're being paid for, and finish the farm bill.

Source