Statement of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on the Farm Bill

November 16, 2007 -- Washington, DC – “It is deeply disappointing that President Bush and Republicans in Congress have chosen to put politics over the needs of our farmers and rural communities. By threatening to veto the bill and by blocking the farm bill from coming to a final vote, President Bush and Republicans in Congress are obstructing a real opportunity to make progress for our farmers and producers and further delaying needed reauthorization of this critical bill.

I am also dismayed that Republicans blocked an important bipartisan effort by Senators Grassley and Dorgan to more evenly distribute vital federal farm bill funds to smaller and medium sized farm operations. Making our limited farm bill budget stretch further for rural America should be our top priority. Targeting our commodity programs away from some of our larger agribusiness interests and toward smaller and medium sized farmers is an important step toward this goal and I urge the Senate to approve this critical measure.

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The reauthorization of the farm bill is an opportunity to make progress for our rural and agricultural communities. It is an opportunity to continue programs that are working for our farmers and producers in New York and across the country and make needed improvements. We cannot allow needed progress to be hamstrung by politics. I will continue to work to send a strong, bipartisan farm bill to the President’s desk and do right by our farmers and rural communities.”

Source: Senator Hillary Clinton