[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 16 (Tuesday, February 6, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S877-S878]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             THE FARM BILL

  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, this afternoon the Senate will once again 
attempt to wrestle with one of its key responsibilities to American 
agriculture, and that is to pass legislation that will craft new farm 
policy for our country and send the necessary message as to what we 
expect American agriculture to do in relation to farm programs directed 
by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
  I found it interesting yesterday that President Clinton has submitted 
his 1997 budget when we do not even have a 1996 budget, and we find 
ourselves here on the floor of the Senate today debating agriculture 
because the President vetoed agriculture. So while the President is now 
off campaigning across the country waving a 1997 budget, the Government 
does not have a 1996 budget, and we do not have a farm policy.
  The Secretary of Agriculture has just entered the floor. By the 15th 
of this month, he is going to arrive at a crisis point in having to 
deal with the implementation of 1949 agricultural policy.
  Last Friday on the floor of this Senate, the Democrat leader and his 
party blocked a farm bill. We offered a bipartisan farm bill, Democrats 
and Republicans alike. Senator Leahy of Vermont, who is just about as 
liberal as I am conservative, came together in a bipartisan bill. Once 
again we were denied the opportunity to vote on that because we were 
told it would be blocked. 

[[Page S878]]

  I hope today that we can deal with a farm bill and send the 
appropriate message to American agriculture. But yesterday, I think 
Robert Shapiro, the president of the Progressive Policy Institute, 
which is a centrist Democrat leadership council arm, said it very 
clearly: The President's budget is not about dollars; it is about 
politics. He said we are now in a political season, and the President 
did this for politics. The politics that is being played on the floor 
of the U.S. Senate right now may be good for one party or another, but 
it is not good for American agriculture.
  So, Mr. President, pick up the phone and call your people here in the 
Senate and say let us get an agriculture bill so that the Secretary of 
Agriculture does not have to deal with the kind of draconian things 
that he may be forced to do to send a shock wave through American 
agriculture by implementation of the 1949 farm policy. That is not good 
government. That is not the kind of government we need to deal with.
  So I hope we can arrive at a solution this afternoon. But, Mr. 
President, in closing, because I know our time is up here at about 
12:30, I am told that there are now 240-plus amendments filed at the 
desk on the Lugar-Leahy-Craig alternative bipartisan farm bill. That 
sends a very simple message to me. There is not going to be a farm bill 
today. It is impossible to deal with it after 6\1/2\ months of 
intensive extensive hearings before the Senate Agriculture Committee 
when American agriculture, almost per organization, said do not simply 
reinstate farm policy, but reform it and clean it up. And that is what 
we have done in trying to build this.
  I am not sure where we go from here. I hope we can get the 60 votes 
this afternoon so that we can move forward and get the 1996 work done 
before our President is off campaigning on 1997 budgets that do not 
balance while he is President, assuming he might get elected another 
term. I find it very interesting that his own people are now saying it 
is not policy; it is all politics. Well, we knew that. He knows that. 
But it is a very dangerous kind of politics, a very dangerous kind of 
politics for American agriculture.
  Historically, Mr. President, we have always crafted a bipartisan farm 
bill. I see the Senator from North Dakota on the floor. He has talked 
about that. I have worked with him. I have worked with other Senators 
on the floor to craft a bipartisan approach to farm policy. I hope that 
is what we can accomplish this afternoon before the political season 
gets so hot that we cannot get any work done.
  If that is the case, we probably lose. But someone else loses, and 
that is the American farmer and American agriculture.
  Mr. PRYOR addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arkansas is recognized.
  Mr. PRYOR. Mr. President, I thank the Chair for recognizing me.
  Mr. President, I am stunned listening to my good friend from Idaho 
talk about the politics of the season. If talking about the politics 
surrounding the vote this afternoon on a bill that the U.S. Senate 
Agriculture Committee has never had hearings on, has never passed, when 
the other party has frozen this side of the aisle totally out of any 
negotiations relative to meeting our commitment to an agriculture bill 
for the farmers of this country--they come forward with something known 
as the freedom-to-farm-bill. The freedom-to-farm bill, Mr. President, 
frankly, is a bill that the farmers in France should love. Our 
competitors overseas should love the freedom-to-farm bill because what 
it is going to mean is that our farmers are going to be unable to 
compete in the international and world markets. This bill spells 
doomsday for the farmers of America. It spells doomsday for the 
agriculture programs in our country that are the envy of the world.
  Mr. President, I cannot believe that my friend from Idaho is talking 
about the politics of the moment when it is his party that has 
prevented a real debate on the 1996 agriculture bill to take place. 
This bill was written by budgeteers. It was not written by the 
Agriculture Committee in the House or in the Senate. It was written by 
the budget committees, Mr. President. My friend from Idaho knows that.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, will the Senator yield for a question?
  Mr. PRYOR. Yes.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I ask the Senator from Arkansas if we find 
ourselves in the circumstance that for the first time in history the 
farm bill was stuck in the budget reconciliation bill last year. So 
there was no farm bill debate on the floor of the Senate. It was 
supposed to happen last year, but it did not happen.
  I think that it probably is not very important to talk about what 
happened yesterday. The question is, what happens today and what 
happens tomorrow? The issue for us is, what about the future of family 
farming in this country? Will we have family farmers in the future or 
not? Will we simply have giant agri-factories farming from California 
to Maine? Do we care about the future of family farmers, or do we not? 
Is that not the real issue before us?
  This is not about politics. It is about policy and who cares about 
the future of family farmers.
  Mr. PRYOR. I will answer my friend from North Dakota by saying that 
just a few months ago, I went before our farm bureau organization down 
in Arkansas. I spent about an hour and a half visiting with them. They 
begged me and they pled with me to oppose the Freedom to Farm Act. Now, 
suddenly, they have made a reversal. They say, ``Well, maybe it is the 
best we can do.''
  Mr. President, I do not think it is the best we can do. I think that 
we can do better. I think that we can go back and draft at least an 
extension of the farm bill of the past 5 years and extend it for a year 
and make certain that we do not make the gargantuan mistakes that we 
are likely to make today by enacting the Freedom to Farm Act.
  Mr. President, I think the appointed hour has arrived, and I 
therefore yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who seeks recognition?
  Mr. CRAIG addressed the Chair.
  Mr. FORD. The time has expired.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Idaho.
  Mr. CRAIG. I would note the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The VICE PRESIDENT. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________