FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 26, 2002
Contact: Drew Goesl 

Lincoln: Farm Bill Ready to Go

Washington – A new framework for the farm bill was met with approval Friday by U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), who had protested the Senate farm bill in February as a poor deal for Arkansas farmers.

Lincoln welcomed the announcement of a new farm bill agreement, which will allow the farm bill to move forward after five weeks of difficult negotiations in the House-Senate conference committee.

As negotiators sought to reconcile the farm packages passed in the Senate and the House of Representatives, Lincoln had pressured Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) to guarantee swift action on the farm bill. Lincoln and several of her Southern colleagues met with Daschle on Tuesday and urged him to bridge the differences between the conferees, which threatened to stall progress on the bill even further.

"I'm pleased that the House and Senate conferees have come together to complete work on a farm bill," Lincoln said. "It's been a long, hard battle, but the package the conferees have put together appears to go a long way toward responding to the needs of our agricultural producers."

Many of the specific details of the agreement were to be released late Friday afternoon, but Lincoln said it is clear the package will bring benefits to farmers throughout the nation, beginning this year.

"Finally, our producers, rural bankers, and farm communities can go to work this spring knowing their government is committed to a dependable safety net for agriculture," Lincoln said.

Lincoln also commended Daschle, along with House Agriculture Committee Chairman Larry Combest (R-Texas) and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), and the other conferees, for working with her in a bipartisan fashion to break the logjam and bring relief to America's farmers.