[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 192 (Friday, December 14, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S15643]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             THE FARM BILL

  Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I wish to thank the Senator from Michigan 
for summarizing the important issues we worked on today that help the 
American people. We are grateful for her work on these issues and her 
great leadership.
  I wish to speak just for a few minutes, probably less than 2 minutes, 
about the farm bill. It is hard to do that because it is such a massive 
piece of legislation, but suffice it to say that I think when we came 
to this Congress a year ago--it was a brandnew Congress--we said we 
were going to focus on change in a new direction. I think the change we 
have tried to bring is a change of priorities, really. I think this 
farm bill is evidence of that. It is also a bipartisan effort, the 
whole list of things you have already heard on the specialty crops for 
States such as Pennsylvania, a brandnew part of the farm bill, whether 
it is the help that our dairy farmers in Pennsylvania will receive--not 
nearly enough help; we have more work to do there but certainly some 
new changes there.
  The energy title is so important to create the jobs of the future but 
also reduce our dependance on foreign sources of energy. The 
conservation and the reform efforts that were made here are important. 
To highlight something in the nutrition title in this bill, there is 
more than $5 billion of new money for nutrition, so needed by families 
across America.
  So I think we can be very proud, and I wanted to say how much I 
appreciate the work of the whole Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry 
Committee. Chairman Tom Harkin did a wonderful job. The ranking member, 
Senator Chambliss, spoke before about Senator Conrad's contribution as 
the Budget chair, also sits on our Agriculture Committee. I am grateful 
that so much work went into this for the people, in my case, of 
Pennsylvania but also for the people of America.


                                 S-CHIP

  Before I turn the microphone over to one of our fellow committee 
members, and, like the Presiding Officer, a fellow freshman, Senator 
Klobuchar from Minnesota, who will be coming after me, I want to say 
one word about the President's veto this week, yet again, the second 
time, of the State Children's Health Insurance Program.
  Once again, he is wrong. Once again, he is going counter to the 
bipartisan effort in America but especially here in Washington when it 
comes to parties trying to work together where we could cover 10 
million American children. Once again, the President has stepped in 
front of that.
  Unfortunately, in this season of hope, this holiday season, the 
President has made it much more difficult now to cover 10 million 
American children. It is a mistake. It is bad for the country. It is 
certainly bad for those children. But in the long run, it is bad for 
our future economy. I think the President should talk to members of 
both parties and try to work something out to get 10 million children 
in America covered.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.

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