Lynn A. Westmoreland

Mr. Speaker, I come before you today to honor my friend, lifetime Fayetteville resident and entrepreneur, Robert Jordan, who passed away on December 16, 2014.

In 1952, Robert got his first job in retail at the age of 17 at the old Travis Hardware store in downtown Fayetteville. During his visits to various warehouses around town, Robert noticed items seemingly not for sale and placed off to the side. Eventually, he realized he could cheaply buy some of those discarded items, take them back to downtown Fayetteville, and sell them for a profit, while still offering his customers a good deal.

By the early 1970s, Robert was giving full-time attention to buying and selling salvage merchandise and became well-known for his wheeling and dealing. If you wanted to know anything about the community in Fayette County or if you wanted to win an election, you went to see Robert Jordan. Robert was the guy to go to.

Jordan Sales and Salvage became popular and profitable, and it is a fine example of what American entrepreneurship is all about. The way Robert ran his business and treated customers as his friends is a true statement of the compassion and faith involved in all the aspects of his daily life, especially the big love he had for his family.

Joan and I send our condolences and prayers to the Jordan family, especially his wife of 60 years, Nellie, during this difficult time, and I am thankful to have met Robert and to have visited his store from time to time, but I am especially lucky to call him my friend.

Robert, until we meet again, we miss you.

Mr. Speaker, today I would like to recognize Phil Hogan, Josh Allen, James Weston Abbott, and Shea Lasseter for their work for Coweta-Fayette electric cooperative, located in my district, and Habersham electric cooperative.

Coweta-Fayette initiated a partnership with Habersham for these gentlemen to travel to Costa Rica as volunteers for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association International Foundation. They helped construct an electric distribution system and worked alongside employees at Coopeguanacaste, the electric co-op in the town of Guanacaste.

Their volunteer efforts included extending access to electricity for families in this community. Electricity is a critical element in improving the quality of life. It enables better health care, education, clean water, and other vital services. These men also shared safety and best construction practices with the Costa Rican cooperative employees.

NRECA International has been active in rural electrification development in Costa Rica since 1963. The four electric cooperatives in Costa Rica serve approximately 750,000 folks. Thanks to these volunteers, more families in the world now have a chance for a better life.

Thank you, Phil Hogan, Josh Allen, James Weston Abbott, and Shea Lasseter for your hard work and dedication.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5810.

This bill would meet the cotton industry's growing need for a rural contract for cotton on the United States market.

H.R. 5810 offers a simple technical fix that is needed due to the outdated 1916 Cotton Futures Act in terms of recognizing the global cotton trade.

Recent discussions with USDA revealed that the 1916 Cotton Futures Act requires all cotton tendered on a cotton futures contract that is listed for trading on a U.S. exchange to be classified by the USDA. This is unrealistic, both logistically and financially, for non-U.S. cotton stored in warehouses outside the U.S.

The industry's desire to trade and hedge a more modern contract requires a legislative tweak to the 1916 Cotton Futures Act to allow for any non-U.S. cotton tendered toward this U.S. contract to be inspected and classed by non-USDA personnel.

Our proposal would not change the regulation of the contract, nor the current USDA classing requirement that U.S. cotton must be classified by the USDA personnel.

Additionally, this bill also would not impact fees being generated by the USDA in the classing of U.S. cotton, tendered toward the existing cotton futures.

Here is the bottom line. For the industry to be able to hedge the 2015 cotton crop, they will need a tweak to this futures act that they may petition the CFTC for the new world contract to be listed. If H.R. 5810 is not passed, a new contract would likely be listed at other exchanges in Europe or Singapore.

With such unanimous support for this contract and solution, we hope this effort will be considered technical in nature and adopted quickly.

I urge my colleagues to support the measure.