[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Page 23975]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                      UNANIMOUS CONSENT AGREEMENT

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at 12 noon, 
Thursday, December 6, the motion to proceed to S. 1731, the farm bill, 
be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid on the table; that 
the Senate then proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 254, H.R. 
3338, the Department of Defense appropriations bill, provided, further 
that no amendments be in order to S. 1731 prior to Tuesday, December 
11.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the two managers of the bill, Senators 
Harkin and Lugar, are two of the prizes we have in the Senate. The 
debate has been very civil, and they really look forward to going back 
to this bill. Debate on the bill should be one of the better debates we 
have had this year. I hope everyone who has concerns will get their 
amendments ready so we can finish this bill before the end of the year.
  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, if the Senator will yield, I thank the 
Senator for working out this agreement and for getting us to cloture on 
this bill so we can proceed to the farm bill.
  As my good friend from Nevada knows, people in rural America need 
this bill. They need it now.
  The Presiding Officer also knows that his farmers in Georgia, and 
especially farmers around the South, are going to have to go to their 
banks pretty soon after the first of the year to get loans ready for 
planting their crops. Their bank is going to say: What are you looking 
at? What are you going to have next year? They will not know. Many 
farmers will be right behind them in about February and March. They 
will be going to their banks.
  That is why it is so important to get this farm bill finished. As I 
said earlier today, and I say to my good friend from Nevada, right now 
we are facing over 54 percent less net farm income today than we had in 
1995. We can't afford to wait any longer. We have a good bill. It is a 
balanced bill. We have worked out all of our agreements.
  This is a good bill for all Americans. It is a good bill for farmers 
all over this country. It is a good bill for people who live in our 
small towns and communities.
  I want to personally thank my good friend from Nevada, the assistant 
majority leader, for all of his help in getting this bill to the floor 
and for making sure we get this bill finished before we go home for 
Christmas. We are going to do that. We are going to finish this bill. 
We are going to have it out of here, and we are going to let the 
farmers of America know what they can count on for next year.
  I thank my friend.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the majority leader asked me to also 
announce that when we go to the Defense appropriations bill, we are 
going to complete it this week. He will certainly have more to say 
about this tomorrow. But this is something we have to do. People who 
serve in the Senate want to be out of here by a week from Friday, and 
we have to finish this bill so it can be taken to conference over the 
weekend and the conference report brought back prior to next Friday. I 
hope everyone will understand that.
  As he said--I am speaking for the majority leader--we may have to 
work through the weekend. But if people have any hope of getting out of 
here by next Friday, they are going to have to really work with us and 
move this legislation.

                          ____________________