As the first Member of Congress from western Washington to serve on the House Agriculture Committee in over 50 years, I am proud to represent the needs of our agriculture community.

I ask the American people to consider the legacy this administration has handed us in the defense budget as we spend billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars without the tools and ability to track these dollars.

For the past several years, the Meth Caucus has worked to engage the Office of National Drug Control Policy on this issue. We have tried to get their attention that meth requires a strong, comprehensive Federal policy.

As the first Member of Congress from western Washington to serve on the House Agriculture Committee in over 50 years, I am proud to represent the needs of our agriculture community.

Congress must take responsibility for a new positive direction - an innovative agenda that will lead to a more secure America. Secure communities, secure economies, and a secure quality of life.

We need a positive economic agenda that invests in the innovation and growth that will create jobs for middle class families and ensure that America remains the world leader.

Congress had the opportunity to extend tax relief to working families without increasing the deficit. Instead, we were handed a bill that favors the wealthy and eliminates deductions that benefit the middle class.

Today's global landscape is increasingly interconnected. China and the Middle East play critical roles towards international peace and security.

As a co-chair of the State's 2010 Olympics Task Force, I am working to make sure our border crossings are ready to handle the risks and benefits the Games will bring.

Now more than ever, America needs an agenda for real change.

America needs to be secure at home and abroad.

I strongly support tax relief for the middle class.

I can finally go home and tell the constituents, law enforcement, and leaders in Washington state that Congress is treating the meth problem with the same urgency and commitment that local communities have been treating it with for years.

Children are often the silent victims of drug abuse.

And we need to maintain our foothold in the fight against terrorism and terrorist groups and respond to any degradation of Iraqi security or stability.

Our ability to effectively engage China and the Arab world rests on shared economic and political interests and mutual understanding.

We need safe communities that are free from methamphetamine and a federal commitment to stand next to state leadership and law enforcement in the fight against this epidemic.

I have heard repeated stories of meth users leaving their children unattended for days as they cook, use and then sleep off the intense effects of methamphetamine.

We are the greatest country in the world but we are facing serious issues.

My goal is to ensure the Northern Border is safe, secure and allows for the free flow of travel and commerce.

Methamphetamine is a highly dangerous drug that is wreaking havoc on families and communities throughout this country. The drug's use is spreading across the United States.

Washington state's 2nd Congressional District is a major producer of small fruit crops such as raspberries and strawberries. This research center is doing important work to help farmers enhance the quality, yield and marketability of their small fruit crops.

As many as three million people are expected to attend the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, British Columbia. The security concerns and economic opportunities are great for both Canada and Washington state.

It is obvious that the greatest and most important service that is required of our agriculture under existing conditions is an enlarged production of the staple food crops.

Every major food company now has an organic division. There's more capital going into organic agriculture than ever before.

Agriculture not only gives riches to a nation, but the only riches she can call her own.

As an integral part of the Department of Agriculture, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service monitors our Nation's agriculture to protect against agricultural pests and diseases.

The greatest advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science and literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government.

As the first Member of Congress from western Washington to serve on the House Agriculture Committee in over 50 years, I am proud to represent the needs of our agriculture community.

Contrasting sharply, in the developing countries represented by India, Pakistan, and most of the countries in Asia and Africa, seventy to eighty percent of the population is engaged in agriculture, mostly at the subsistence level.

Texas has been hit especially hard this year by a continuing drought, threatening high winds and increasingly destructive range fires. Simply, these conditions have lead to extremely adverse conditions in the agriculture industry.

The discovery of agriculture was the first big step toward a civilized life.

If we win, we'll make history, and I'll serve you on the Agriculture Committee.

With the introduction of agriculture mankind entered upon a long period of meanness, misery, and madness, from which they are only now being freed by the beneficent operation of the machine.

On the professional side, those 18 years on the farm instilled my love for agriculture.

We must then build a proper relationship between the richest and the poorest countries based on our desire that they are able to fend for themselves with the investment that is necessary in their agriculture, so that Africa is not a net importer of food, but an exporter of food.

Little ol' boy in the Panhandle told me the other day you can still make a small fortune in agriculture. Problem is, you got to start with a large one.

Penn State has also continued to be a leader in Pennsylvania's largest industry: Agriculture.

The concentration and reciprocal effect of industry and agriculture conjoin in a growth of productive powers, which increases more in geometrical than in arithmetical proportion.

When you concentrate on agriculture and industry and are frugal in expenditures, Heaven cannot impoverish your state.

The CAFTA region currently imports $15 billion annually of U.S. agriculture and manufactured goods.

So imagine a world 6 degrees warmer. It's not going to recognize geographical boundaries. It's not going to recognize anything. So agriculture regions today will be wiped out.

By increasing the use of renewable fuels such as ethanol and bio-diesel, and providing the Department of Energy with a budget to create more energy efficiency options, agriculture can be the backbone of our energy supply as well.

Advances in technology will continue to reach far into every sector of our economy. Future job and economic growth in industry, defense, transportation, agriculture, health care, and life sciences is directly related to scientific advancement.

More than 15 percent of the jobs in Ohio are tied in some way to agriculture. A strong agriculture means a strong economy.

Just as the science and art of agriculture depend upon chemistry and botany, so the art of education depends upon physiology and psychology.

True contentment is a thing as active as agriculture. It is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in it. It is arduous and it is rare.

Mr. President, it may surprise my colleagues, but I am no fan of federal disaster programs for agriculture. They are difficult to pass and often a disaster to implement.

Before the discovery of agriculture mankind was everywhere so divided, the size of each group being determined by the natural fertility of its locality.