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Texas Agriculture Archive

July 4, 2003

Dollars and Sense

State Representative Jim Pitts, who hails from Waxahachie, is a farmer, rancher and a definite friend of agriculture. He is a three-term veteran of the powerful House Committee on Appropriations. As the Chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on Education, he wielded significant influence in the budgetary process. Representative Pitts helped protect a number of measures that are important to Farm Bureau, such as the Food and Fibers Commission and the Texas Cooperative Extension Service. With the budget being the single most controversial item in this past legislative session, it was critical that Jim Pitts provided the leadership to protect our agriculture related agencies.

"Obviously, when you're in your interim and you're trying to develop your legislative program, Farm Bureau is always there to visit with you and give you advice and give you suggestions on what needs to be done. When we're down here at the Texas Capitol, when we're considering legislation, when I can stand up in a committee or on the floor of the Senate, and say, 'The Farm Bureau supports this,' then I automatically get seven or eight votes. It's just that important. Ya'll do a good job down here, are appreciated, and I know like with folks like me who represent large rural areas, we need that force down here in Austin, and y'all do represent that force for agriculture."

—Sen. Robert Duncan

Cook: 'Why I went to Oklahoma'

Editor's Note: He said it wasn't an easy decision, but weighing the consequences, Representative Robby Cook, a conservative Democrat and friend of agriculture from Eagle Lake, said he had to join fellow Democrats in a trip to Ardmore, Okla., to stop a Republican redistricting plan. Here's what he had to say:

"I realize the trip to Oklahoma was somewhat controversial. From my perspective, I didn't do it because I was either a Democrat or Republican. If you looked at the map (redistricting), if someone takes the time to look at the map that was proposed, it would have virtually gutted rural Texas.

"In my opinion, communities of interest is an extremely important variable or criteria you look at when you redistrict. I don't care which party's in power...rural Texas, we know, we're losing representation. We know that most of the population is moving toward the urban centers. So we need to hold on to the last vestiges of power that we have,whether it be in the state legislature or certainly in Congress.

"And in Congress we have some very good friends—Charlie Stenholm, Jim Turner, several of those guys. Charlie is the ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee, and Charlie's a huge friend for agriculture.

"But if you look at the communities of interest, if you look at a Congressman from a large urban area and they have a small percentage of voters in the small rural areas...you look at dollars for transportation, you look at farm legislation, you look at health care, you look at public school funding, the whole myriad of issues, a lot of those issues aren't Republican or Democrat. A lot of those issues are rural/urban issues.

“And by the sheer nature of where your population base is going to be, certainly a congressman is going to pay more attention to the larger populated areas than they are the smaller, less populated rural areas. That’s just a simple fact. That’s one of the main reasons I chose to go to Oklahoma. It wasn’t an easy decision. I knew it would be controversial, I knew that it may well cost me my political career. But I don’t think that the citizens in my district are wanting me to always take the easy road, so to speak. Sometimes you’ve got to stand up for what you believe in.

“So the reasons I went to Oklahoma were because, number one, fixed communities of interest—rural areas—we don’t need to give up on them just yet, if ever. I never want to give up on our rural representation. Number two, if in fact there is a proposal to do a redistricting, it needs to be open. It doesn’t need to be done behind closed doors. It needs to be a very open process and public input is one of the most extremely important things that we can do when we look at redistricting.”

Defending rural needs

Senator Robert Duncan of Lubbock is one of the hardest-working and most effective members of the Legislature. He balances representing a vast district made up of 46 West Texas counties as a Republican senator with a family and a successful legal career.

This was also Senator Duncan's first session as Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Subcommittee. Senator Duncan advanced legislation helping producers protect their commodities and property as well as utilize water and other resources.

Chairman Duncan's work ethic and respect among his colleagues places him in key leadership positions in the legislative process. He was instrumental in moving many of Texas Farm Bureau's priority issues though the Senate, including protection of water rights from abusive condemnation. His efforts will help assure landowners of an open process that will fairly compensate them for their resources. Senator Duncan's defense of agriculture and rural spending needs, such as saving the Food and Fiber Commission in the face of an urban dominated Legislature, shows the importance of effective rural representation.

Property rights champ

Chairwoman Anna Mowery of Ft.Worth is no stranger to the halls of the Capitol or powerful committees. During the 78^th Legislative session, she chaired a very important committee to those concerned about private property rights—the Land and Resource Management Committee.

Mowery's leadership halted numerous bills filed to erode private property rights. Additionally, she championed legislation to implement and keep in place safeguards for landowners. One such bill would have allowed additional ordinance making authority to county governments.