[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 79 (Wednesday, May 14, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4123-S4124]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          FARM BILL CONFERENCE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, before turning this over to the Republican 
leader, we have worked long and hard on the farm bill. It is a 
bipartisan bill. It has been a struggle to get where we are. I so 
appreciate the work done by Senators who are responsible for bringing 
this to the floor, Senators Harkin and Chambliss, Baucus, Grassley, and 
a lot of other players who are involved. It is a very important piece 
of legislation. We expect to turn to the farm conference report as soon 
as we receive it from the House. We even will try to do it before it 
comes here, if we can get a consent agreement. We hope we can limit 
debate on this matter and get it out of here.
  Remember, this week we have to hopefully dispose of the collective 
bargaining legislation. We have to take

[[Page S4124]]

care of the farm bill. We have to appoint conferees on the budget. We 
also have to dispose of, because we have a statutory problem, the media 
cross-ownership issue. There are 10 hours of debate on that. I hope we 
can limit that significantly. Those are the items we need to complete 
this week--this week--and it is already Wednesday.

                          ____________________