Bill Bruins Quotations

The across-the-board cuts to all agriculture programs contained in the President's budget aren't a surprise. We dealt with that last year. But those cuts are a concern when we are still in the midst of world trade negotiations and when U.S. agriculture needs a strong bargaining hand while we seek reductions in trade barriers from other countries.

The real estate becomes so horrendously expensive that, from an economic standpoint, it doesn't make sense to farm it anymore. We're still losing over a farm a day, but the remaining farms are getting larger.

Congress usually puts aside every budget from the President and will write their own. We will be working with our Congressional delegation as Congress writes their budget, so farmers shouldn't get too worked up until we get to the budget writing committees. This is the first step in a long process.