[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 9815-9816]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               FARM BILL

  (Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, politics trumped good 
government today in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Members of 
this body demonstrated a failure to lead by voting down the farm bill.
  The Federal Government currently operates a costly maze of 
duplicative and outdated agriculture spending programs. The farm bill 
crafted by the House reflected a fiscally responsible plan that would 
have ended the abuses of food stamps, ended wasteful agriculture 
spending programs and, achieved a level of efficiency for existing 
programs that should be replicated in all areas of government.
  The farm bill would have eliminated automatic enrollment in food 
stamps

[[Page 9816]]

and prevented fraudulent benefit payments by requiring States to verify 
eligibility for the program. The farm bill would have ended the 
economically disruptive policies that have worked to further 
destabilize our dairy markets. The bill transitioned to a more free 
market approach that's better for farmers and taxpayers alike.
  In the absence of this comprehensive reform package, the overspending 
and taxpayer waste will now continue.

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