Cornyn: Immigration is one of top priorities

John Cornyn

Passing a farm bill quickly and coming up with a viable solution to the immigration problems in the U.S. will be a high priority for Texas Senator John Cornyn after his recent return to Washington D.C.

Cornyn spoke with the delegates of the 74th annual Texas Farm Bureau state convention in Waco recently before returning to the nation's capital for the final weeks of 2007. Having left the Senate's version of the Farm Bill unresolved before the Thanksgiving break, Cornyn said his colleagues will have their work cut out for them.

"It is important that we do in Washington what is best for rural Texas and the many farmers and ranchers in our state," Cornyn said. "I have full confidence that if we do what's good for them, we're doing what's right for the rest of the state.

"Sadly, we've seen the Farm Bill become a captive of political partisanship," he added. "We could have and should have passed a Farm Bill already, and the last thing we need is the Farm Bill lost in political games."

The biggest obstacle, Cornyn said, has come at the hands of the Senate majority leadership and its blockade of amendments to the Senate Farm Bill, which has effectively stalled the $288 billion piece of legislation -- a full two-thirds of which focuses on child nutrition programs.

Without amendments, the senator said, lawmakers can't address important elements within the bill.

Cornyn pointed to his proposed legislation to actively battle childhood obesity within programs such as Food Stamps, as well as criticisms of the first-ever livestock chapter to the newest Farm Bill.

With producers already planning for next year's crops and, as Cornyn put it, "several nervous bankers" concerned about financing them with the Farm Bill in limbo, now is not the time for lawmakers to play games.

"I feel bad for our farmers and ranchers," he said. "Our government leaders should work for them instead of posturing themselves for the next election. "Of equal importance to rural Texas is Washington's lack of action on the immigration issue, Cornyn added.

He vowed to do all he could to see that comprehensive immigration reforms are accomplished that offered both a viable guest worker program for the industries that needed them, as well as a humane solution to dealing with the millions of undocumented workers already living in this country.

"It's what folks in Washington owe the people back home," Cornyn said. "We all too often take for granted the efforts of men and women like those in the Texas Farm Bureau who make sure we have the highest-quality foods at the lowest prices in the world.

"Those of us in Washington need to make sure we do our jobs so that the heavy hand of government doesn't impede what they do best: put food on all of our plates."