Westerman, Bruce: Pursuant to committee rules, members of the committee may submit written opening statements for the record. Asset members may revise and extend their remarks on the bills to be considered at this markup and have those remarks included in the record without objection, so ordered. Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare recess of the committee at any Pursuant to committee rule 3i, the chair announces that he may postpone further proceedings today on the question of approving any measure or matter or adopting an amendment on which a
UNKNOWN: recorded vote is ordered.
Westerman, Bruce: For the record, I want everybody to know that Mr. Huffman and I still have a good working relationship, but due to a contentious water issue, we've decided to put some space between
UNKNOWN: us today for this hearing.
Westerman, Bruce: It was...
SPEAKER_13: Or Mr. Chair, was that raining on somebody's parade?
Westerman, Bruce: And that was your thinking like I'm thinking, and before we begin, I do want to take a moment to remember our friend and colleague, Doug LaMalfa, and he was a world-class legislator and a world-class human. He was a friend and a colleague, and he cared deeply about his constituents. He cared deeply about the issues, and he cared deeply about other people. He's a fourth-generation Northern California rice farmer. If you don't know, Arkansas is the country's largest rice producer, and Doug and I were always having a debate on Arkansas rice versus California rice, and it was usually him that instigated it because he liked to find things to pick at you about and to joke around about, and California rice was one of those issues that we talked about a lot. But he had a lot of expertise, technical expertise in agriculture. He brought that to his service here in Congress and on the policy issues he worked on.
UNKNOWN: He understood firsthand the risk and the challenges and how those things affected
Westerman, Bruce: the lives of people who farmed here in America. Obituaries have rightly praised Doug as a voice for rural America and the West. Those of us who knew him personally will probably remember him for his friendship, his faith, his optimism, and his deep and abiding love for his country and for those he served. Again, all of our prayers are with Jill and the entire LaMalfa family, and Mr. Huffman,
SPEAKER_11: Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Doug was my neighbor for many, many years.
UNKNOWN: We represented adjacent districts, and we loved many of the same places, found ways
SPEAKER_11: to work together on things for these communities that we shared, despite our pretty profound And that was probably the thing I appreciate most about Doug, is he always kept his sense of humor, his humanity, and I think that's something we can all take from his legacy, that it's possible to just still be people, treat each other with respect, and as fellow human beings, as neighbors, while we duke it out on our political differences. That's a great thing, and I...