[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Page 21582]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                 AMERICA'S FARMERS NEED A FARM BILL NOW

  Mr. DORGAN. My colleague from Arizona is coming back to speak, but 
before he does I will mention the issue of the farm bill. We have had a 
substantial amount of discussion in recent days about the farm bill.
  I mentioned aviation security, which we need to get done quickly. I 
mentioned the stimulus package, which we have a requirement to enact, 
and now a farm bill. We have the Secretary of Agriculture who has left, 
I believe, for Qatar. It is a country whose name most of us cannot 
pronounce. They are having the WTO meeting in Qatar because they cannot 
have them anywhere else. It is a country with very few hotel rooms, and 
so they will therefore accommodate very few demonstrators. These 
demonstrators tend to show up wherever they are discussing trade 
anywhere in the world, so they are having this meeting in Qatar. But we 
had hoped to meet with the Secretary of Agriculture last week.
  We think it is very important to pass a farm bill in the next 3 or 4 
weeks. The House of Representatives did so. It is better than current 
law. It is not good enough yet for wheat and feed grains and some of 
the things we need to do to improve it, but we have a responsibility to 
pass a farm bill, one that works for family farmers.
  There are some who are counseling, as the Secretary of Agriculture, 
the head of the Office of Management and Budget and others have, that, 
oh, do not worry, do not do it now, do it next spring; the money will 
still be there. Nonsense. That money is in the budget this year, and it 
reserves a place this year and in future years, but it will not be 
there next year. Next year, we face an entirely different economy when 
we begin constructing a new budget. So we have a responsibility to do a 
farm bill in the next 2, 3 to 4 weeks as well, and some of us are going 
to fight like the devil to make that happen.
  I prefer it be a farm bill that comes out of the Agriculture 
Committee. Senator Harkin is leading the way, and I want to work with 
him. If it does not come out of the committee, then there is a farm 
bill sitting at the desk we could bring before the Senate and amend. It 
came from the House of Representatives. One way or another we owe it to 
the American farmers to write a farm bill that works.
  I see my colleague from Arizona is in the Chamber, and I yield the 
floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Leahy). The Senator from Arizona.

                          ____________________