[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 133 (Tuesday, October 5, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S11936]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   ECONOMIC CONVULSION IN AGRICULTURE

  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, let me, one more time, return to a 
question I have put to the majority leader, and then I say to my 
colleague from Arizona I will complete my remarks.
  In the last 3 weeks now, I have asked for the opportunity to 
introduce legislation--amendments--which would speak directly to what 
can only be described as an economic convulsion in agriculture, the 
unbelievable economic pain in the countryside, and the number of 
farmers who are literally being obliterated and driven off the land.
  Up to date, I have not been able to get any kind of clear commitment 
from the majority leader as to when we will have the opportunity for 
all of us in the Senate to have a substantive debate about this and 
take action. For those of us in agricultural States, this is very 
important. I want to signal to colleagues that I will look for an 
opportunity, and the first opportunity I get, I will try to do 
everything I can to focus our attention on what can only be described 
as a depression in agriculture. I will try to focus the attention of 
people in the Senate, Democrats and Republicans alike, on the 
transition that is now taking place in agriculture, which I think, if 
it runs its full course, we will deeply regret as a Nation.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

                          ____________________