Washington, D.C. – Today, Congressman David Schweikert (R-AZ), made the following statement about the House passage of the ‘FARRM Bill’.  Due to the funeral of his birth mother, he was unable to cast his vote:

“Due to a family funeral, I was unable to vote on today’s ‘FARRM Bill’ legislation.  However, I want the record to show my strong opposition to the bill that was passed by the House.

“Despite the fact the welfare portion of the bill, in the form of SNAP, was separated, the bill that made its way to the Floor was rife with a permanent entitlement system in the form of farm policy.

“If this bill becomes law, there will be no incentive for our friends in the agriculture community to pass another farm bill for the next 30 years because Washington, in one fell swoop, pegged prices at all time highs.

“Further, under this bill, shallow-loss programs and wholly uncapped crop insurance have become a permanent backstop.“We had an opportunity to shrink government and chose instead to continue down a path of unending subsides and market distortions.”