Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) temporarily set aside the Farm Bill today after failing to shut off debate on the bill. U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) voted to continue debate on this important piece of legislation.

Senator Daschle attempted to prevent the Senate from taking up key amendments to the Farm Bill, including an amendment by Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to put tougher limits on the amount of Federal payments that large producers receive. Debate on the Farm bill will resume early next year. The current Farm Bill does not expire until September 30, 2002.

“The next Farm Bill will impact agricultural policy for years to come,” Hagel said. “The bill brought to the floor by Senators Harkin (D-IA) and Daschle (D-SD) is a bad bill. It would continue the cycle of overproduction that keeps prices down and land values up. It fails to fix the problems with the current Farm Bill. It would be irresponsible of us to rush a bill through the process to meet an arbitrary deadline without taking the time we need to address serious concerns with the bill.

Key amendments would not have been heard if we cut off debate. Senator Grassley’s and my amendment on payment limits would not be debated or voted on if we had ended debate today. I am cosponsoring amendments on other serious issues like trade and water rights that would not have been addressed if we had cut-off the debate on this bill. The Agriculture Committee used the entire summer and autumn to produce a bill. The full Senate should use more than a few days.

We must now take the time we need to hear all the amendments and produce the best Farm Bill possible. This issue is too important not to work to get the best bill we can.”