Sam Farr

Mr. FARR

Mr. FARR. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. FARR. I move to strike the last word.

Mr. FARR. I normally wouldn't oppose this because it cuts from the account that I just tried to cut from, but I only cut $300,000 to pay for something. This amendment cuts $20 million, and it pays for nothing. I just think that that's not a very good proposition. We have an awful lot of facilities that are around this country. Agriculture is everywhere--in every single State and in almost every congressional district. I happen to represent the leading agricultural State in the United States--California--where we grow some 40, 50 crops that no other State grows in addition to hundreds and hundreds of other crops, so we need facilities out there. I know this is an account that is easy to be offset, and as I said, I tackled the same account myself. Yet, since the gentleman opposed my amendment, I think it's only good quid pro quo that I oppose his.

Mr. FARR. Madam Chair, I yield 5 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Boston, Massachusetts, Mr. Steve Lynch.

Mr. FARR. I rise in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. FARR. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of this amendment. We are slowly rebounding from a financial crisis that crippled our economy and left millions of Americans out of work. Clearly, consumer protection is important now more than ever. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, known as the CFTC, is an independent agency that protects market users and the public from abusive practices related to derivatives. This includes helping regulate oil speculation and food price speculation. Now, more than ever, we need a well-resourced CFTC. As Mr. Frank pointed out, this is new legislation. The agency is growing by hiring people who are going to be regulators, and expects by September 30 of this year to have in place what we have given the money for last year, which is 720 full-time equivalent positions. They will help ensure that the public is protected from fraud, manipulation, and systematic risk, and they will make sure that Americans aren't paying exorbitant prices at the pump and grocery stores. And the CFTC can do just that. In the past 3 years, the CFTC has obtained over $1.3 billion in judgments for Americans who have been victimized by thousands of profit-hungry investors around the country. And yet now, in fiscal year 2012, this bill, the Agriculture appropriations bill, slashes the budget of the CFTC by 44 percent. So the first time that we begin to regulate an industry, we are going to cut it back by 160 jobs they will have to let go. Now, remember, they're regulating an industry that is seven times larger than all regulated industry and regulated markets today. Seven times bigger than all regulated markets. This job cut will dangerously undermine the CFTC's regulation of commodities and contribute to rising oil and food prices, as Mr. Frank pointed out. This is blatant fiscal irresponsibility because here's what these cuts mean. The CFTC can't put enough cops on the beat to prevent the big banks from making risky bets that could lead to another financial crisis. So the American taxpayer will foot the bill to bail out Wall Street all over again. This puts the needs of Wall Street over the needs of Main Street. But you know what else it means? It means Americans will be exposed to manipulation of oil and food prices at the very time when folks are scraping together pennies to pay for rent and cover groceries. Our job here in Congress is to be the best possible stewards of taxpayers' dollars. And this shortsighted cut will yield absolutely no return on investment. In fact, we could be lining ourselves up to lose big all over again. I urge my colleagues to support the DeLauro-Kaptur- Farr-Larson-Courtney-Welch-Boswell amendment to restore funding to the CFTC and avoid this misguided attack on the American taxpayer. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. FARR. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to this bill primarily because if it ain't broken, don't fix it. This has been a law for a long time. It allows our committee and the public to know what the A-76 circular review did. The report is on the Department's contracting-out policies and its budget for contracting out, that information, which Congress has been getting year after year without any problems. The language has been in the bill for many years, and we have always received the report allowing the contracting-out activities to proceed. It hasn't stopped anything. The language specifically requires a report to go to the authorizing committee reflecting the agreement reached with the former Republican chairman of the Oversight Committee many years ago. It was his amendment that did this. I have to say personally too that I've done the A-76 circular contracting out. We have a military base in my community, the Defense Language Institute, and the city of Monterey surrounds it. We ended up with an A-76 review, ended up where the city could provide the base operation services much cheaper than the Federal employees on the base, saving the Army about $4 million a year and having much better services delivered. So, again, delivering this report to Congress seems to me hasn't been a problem for anyone. And it ain't broke, so I don't think we ought to support fixing it with Mr. Sessions' amendment. I urge a ``no'' vote. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. FARR. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. FARR. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. FARR. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. FARR. I move to strike the last word.

Mr. FARR. Madam Chair, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. FARR. Madam Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the Member from Memphis, Tennessee (Mr. Cohen).

Mr. FARR. I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro), the former ranking member of this committee.

Mr. FARR. The concern here is that this amendment double dips from the same account. Maybe we can work something out here. Mr. Broun took money out of this account. I took money out of this account.

Mr. FARR. I am very interested. One of your colleagues just cut the heck out of this Department, and you want to add money back in. I am kind of for that. But I am kind of curious because I understand--and the question is, do you intend in the general provisions of this bill later to add some language regarding cattle research?

Mr. FARR. Mr. Chairman, I rise because I want to respond to my chair, who I respect deeply, but I think there is sort of a misstatement of fact here. The only budget that has ever been balanced in the last 20 years has been the budget that the Democrats did. We did an unholy thing that the other party can't accept that is going to be necessary to balance any budget, and that is we had to increase revenues. And what did we do? We closed the tax loopholes on the richest families in this country and corporations. We closed loopholes. And we made a lot of cuts, because we also dedicated revenue from those loophole closures to pay off the deficit. And, guess what? We paid it off. We paid it off ahead of schedule. When the Clinton administration left town and the Bush administration came on, we had an $800 billion surplus--a surplus. And what immediately did they do? They repealed the mechanism that was balancing the budget and said, no, we will give back those tax loopholes to the richest people in the country. And then we go to war. Whenever in history we have gone to war, people have paid for it. Not these wars. We just put it on the credit card. So, Mr. Kingston, you know, let's be factual about the Democrats being in charge. We were able to balance the budget, something that your party hasn't done. And just on this whole WIC thing, we all know that the administration administers the program and has to estimate how many people are going to be in need. That is the way we put together these big budgets, whether they be Medicare or WIC or other kinds of things. And last year what we found out is that the estimates were not needed, so in fact there was a surplus. But it was based on fact after the fact, not ahead of time. This year the economy is down. We have heard many, many speakers talk about the impacts in their districts, of the number of people that are unemployed and are seeking benefits like this. I think the chairman himself has indicated that almost 15 percent of the children in this country are using one or more of these programs. So this idea that this cut can be sustained, when it is based on a guesstimate, and a guesstimate that didn't take in, one, the rising food costs, and, two, the number of people that are still unemployed, and, frankly, people that are underemployed, including members of the military and their families who depend on this WIC funding. So I just want to put it in some kind of perspective here, that the budget has been balanced by this party and paid for and left in a surplus, and the fact that the guesstimates on these WIC cuts are going to do more to do harm than to do good. I now yield to my colleague from Connecticut, Rosa DeLauro.

Mr. FARR. This amendment cuts ERS by $43 million, and that's the Economic Research Service for Agriculture. Then it goes on to cut another $85 million out of the National Agriculture Statistical Service, which is essentially the census of Agriculture. And then it goes on and cuts $650 million out of the Ag Research Service, which is two-thirds of the entire budget--and a budget that is absolutely to keep America competitive. This is an agrarian world we live in. If we're going to stay ahead of the competition and not have all our food imported, we've got to stay ahead of the curve. That's the think tank, the creativity of America. It's also where we know whether we're getting all the bugs and infestation that's coming in. That's what agriculture research is all about. It zeroes out the Food for Peace program. My God, in the world that we're living in now, we don't want to have any friends left? It puts all that savings into a spending reduction account, does nothing to help anybody except do a lot of damage for agriculture, for all the economics of agriculture, the research of agriculture, and the Food for Peace program. I think this is a very bad amendment, and I hope we strongly oppose it. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. FARR. Madam Chair, I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. FARR. I share your concerns, but I'd certainly like to see what we can do to accommodate my colleague. Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. FARR. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. FARR

Mr. FARR. Mr. Chair, on rollcall No. 414, the Amash amendment, had I been present, I would have voted ``no.'' (By unanimous consent, Mr. Baca was allowed to speak out of order.) Charitable Golf Tournament

Mr. FARR

Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Jennefer Lloyd Santee Wineman. Jennefer was a gracious, loving and strikingly beautiful woman who generously gave her time and talents in an effort to better the lives of those around her whom she loved. She passed away on November 26, 2010. Jennefer was born on May 15, 1931 in Montreal Canada, but soon moved to Carmel, California where she later became a proud U.S. citizen. In the beautiful backdrop of cypress trees and glowing sunsets, Jennefer flourished and graduated from Carmel High School in 1949 earning the ``Gold C'' award, which was given to an outstanding scholastic female student. It was during my years at Carmel High School that I really became close with Jennefer, through her younger sister Cindy. Following Carmel High, Jennefer attended Stanford University where she met Nathaniel Baylis and they soon were married. Jennefer and ``Nat'' were blessed with two wonderful sons, Owen and Lloyd. Those closest to her have said that her most natural and intuitive gift was that of being a wonderful, caring mother. In addition to being a loving wife and mother, Jennefer helped pioneer a revolutionary form of education. She became a teacher at the Charles Armstrong School for the dyslexic, a school which specifically caters to the needs of children who require a different method of teaching. Education became Jennefer's passion and led her to play a pivotal role in the establishment of Chartwell School in Carmel. Through her dedication to improving the lives of her students and their families, Jennefer molded Chartwell school into one of the premier special education institutions. After completing her long held dream of providing Chartwell with its own independent campus, families from across America began to relocate to the Central Coast just to have their children attend. Chartwell graduates have gone on to very successful careers in many fields, adding to the strength of our country. As Margaret Mead said, ``never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever does''. Jennefer and the Chartwell School did change the worlds of many young people for the better. Not only a brilliant educator, Jennefer was the guiding light for the Lloyd family, a family which will be celebrating the anniversary of its 100th year in Carmel this coming July. She loved her family and cherished her family's history. She set to work tracing her lineage and eventually joined the Daughters of the Revolution, in which her membership remained an integral part of her life. She challenged her family just as she did her students, to overstep the insurmountable and to take what you want from life with tenacity; she was the catalyst that lit the fire. Jennefer's bright smile and positive outlook helped her see the good in everyone around her and she had the ability to always bring the best qualities of a person to light. Her friends and family have many stories of how Jennefer encouraged them to try again, to gain new skills and reinvent themselves. As a friend of Jennefer's, I truly believe the she took to heart the song, ``Over the Rainbow.'' She believed ``the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.'' Christmas was Jennefer's favorite holiday because it was a time for the entire family to be together and a special time to give thanks for the wonderful things in life. If you were to ask her what she wanted for Christmas, the answer was always the same, ``peace on earth''. Mr. Speaker, Jennefer Lloyd Santee Wineman always put others before herself and dedicated her life to serving her community and family. She was so beautiful, caring and remarkable and I know that one day, on the other side of the rainbow, where skies are blue, and where troubles melt like lemon drops, that is where I'll find her.

Mr. FARR

Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H. Con. Res. 51, which expresses the sense of Congress that we must withdraw our armed forces from Libya no later than 15 days after H. Con. Res. 51 is adopted. It is the constitutional authority of the Congress to declare war. In my view, the President committed U.S. troops to a hostile environment without Congressional consent. Therefore, I voted for H. Con. Res. 51. Simply stated, military intervention endangers the lives of our brave men and women in uniform and that of civilians on the ground. And such a heavy responsibility necessitates concurrence by the Congress. Moreover, our Nation's long term foreign policy cannot be driven by threats of military action in every corner of the world. In order to achieve long-lasting peace and stability, we need to lead by example and look past the sword for solutions. As lessons in Afghanistan and Iraq have taught us, military action alone is not a winning strategy for long-term security and peace. Hearts and minds are not won over by tanks and bombs. Instead, they are won by engaging local populations and offering resources that uplift entire communities. I commend Representative Kucinich for bringing this Resolution to the Floor and I am proud to support it. I always have and always will use my vote and my voice to promote a foreign policy aimed at bringing lasting peace and prosperity to fragile, conflict-ridden regions around the globe. All time for debate has expired. Pursuant to House Resolution 294, the previous question is ordered. The question is on the concurrent resolution.

Mr. FARR

Mr. FARR. I thank the gentleman from Georgia for yielding. It is a pleasure to serve on this committee. I might be the longest serving member on the committee, but I'm a ranking member on another committee. It's a pleasure to serve. I welcome the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Culberson) to his new role as chair of the committee. And it's always a pleasure to serve with the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Dicks) and the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers), the ranking and chair of the major committee. This committee is unique in Congress. It's the only committee where both active duty military and veterans are dealt with from the same policy. There's no other committee in this House or in the Senate that has the one-stop that this committee has. It's a pleasure to be focused on the continuum of care for active duty and reservists and veterans. This past weekend, we remembered the patriotic sacrifice of those who have lost their lives in service to our country, and today we renew our commitment to keep our promise to our Nation's more than 2 million troops and reservists, their families, and 23 million veterans. This committee has a strong history of working in a bipartisan way to produce a bill that supports our active duty servicemembers and our veterans. I am proud to support some much needed increases for the Veterans Affairs Department, and I would note that while this bill is $1.4 billion above last year's level, it is also $1.2 billion less than what the President requested. Additionally, I am pleased to see that this bill emphasizes the needs of our veterans in rural areas. The National Cemetery Administration anticipates that 10 percent of all veterans will not receive access to a burial option in a national, State, or tribal cemetery within 75 miles of their home. I am pleased that this bill directs the National Cemetery Administration to develop a strategy to serve our rural veterans. This language is important because it recognizes that veterans who live in rural communities should be treated on par with veterans who live in urban areas in all services provided by the VA. In my rural district, the central coast of California, veterans are moving a step closer to achieving a dream of a veterans cemetery at the former Fort Ord military base. I commend the chairman and ranking member for their hard work in ensuring that this bill is another significant step in fulfilling the promise our country has made to leave no veteran behind. I urge support for this bill on one condition. The condition is that the language against project labor agreements needs to be taken out.