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[Page: S10356]  GPO's PDF
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   Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, last week the House of Representatives passed a new farm bill . That piece of legislation is an important step forward because most of us believe the current farm bill does not work. The so-called Freedom to Farm bill , in fact, has been a disaster for family farmers now for many years. It had no ability to help farmers during tough times to provide for disasters and collapses in commodity prices. Because of this, each year Congress has had to come up with emergency funding at the end of the year.

   We did that. We did not do enough, but we did some each year to try to repair the hole in the so-called Freedom to Farm bill . That bill now expires at the end of next year and needs to be replaced.

   The House of Representatives, God bless them, said: No. We should not wait until next year. We should write a new farm bill now. And it ought to be in place for the next crop-year when people go into the fields next spring. We in the Senate now have the obligation to do the same, and I believe we will do the same.

   With respect to the bill that the House of Representatives enacted last week, let me say this: I think it is better than the Freedom to Farm bill . They have made progress. Good for them. I commend them.

   There are some things we need to do better than they did in the House bill . For example, in my part of the country we raise a great deal of wheat and barley. The loan rates, for example, for wheat and barley are not significant enough, when compared to other crops. They are far too low in the House bill . So we need to make some adjustments to that piece of legislation.

   Farm benefits ought to be better targeted to family farmers , in my judgment, as well. We have had the development in this country of these giant agrifactories. Well, that is not what we are trying to preserve. If this isn't about preserving family farms , families that are trying to live out their lives in the country and make a living on the family farm , if that is not what this is about, then, in my judgment, we do not need a farm bill .

   Abraham Lincoln started the Department of Agriculture with nine employees in the 1860s. As you know, a century and a half later, it is a behemoth organization. If a farm bill is only to support the giant agrifactories of the world, then count me out. But if it is to support family farms , I say: Good; it is important. And it is important to this country's future that we maintain a network of family farm food producers.

   There is a national security interest as well for the Senate to do a farm bill . The House has done the bill , so we also ought to do it before we adjourn, in the interest of national security.

   What is the national security interest? The other evening on national television, they described a feedlot with nearly 200,000 cattle in it over the year. This is a giant agricultural enterprise that brings large numbers of cattle together and feeds them in a huge series of feedlots. They talked about the potential of bioterrorism entering the food supply, and how convenient it would be for those giant agrifactories to be a target for efforts in bioterrorism.

   It seems to me a broad network of family producers across this country tends to thwart that.

   Security of America's food supply is best achieved by a network of family farms producing America's food. That is why a farm bill is so important.

   We have the obligation and the opportunity in the Senate to do the right thing. Between now and when we leave at the end of this session of Congress, we should pass a farm bill , go to conference, reach agreement with the House, and then send a farm bill to the President that he will sign. I understand the President says he doesn't support the bill passed by the House of Representatives. The fact is, however, if it is not his priority, it is ours. We ought to write a good farm bill and send it to him.

   I believe at the end of the day he will support it because the House passed it with a veto-proof majority. I would expect a good farm bill will pass the Senate with a similar majority.

   I believe we ought to waste no time. I have talked to the majority leader and others about it. He agrees. Let's try to do what we can do to pass a farm bill in the Senate, then go to conference and see if we can't get a farm bill signed into law before the end of this year. That way, family farmers who go into the fields next spring will understand what the new farm bill will be and will be able to plan accordingly.

   It will certainly be better than the Freedom to Farm bill , a bill that has undercut the interests of families trying to make a living on a family farm .

   Very few people in this country have seen their income cut as dramatically as the average family farm income has been cut over the years. This loss of income, then, is somewhat ironic. We are dropping food into Afghanistan because people are on the abyss of starvation; we hear reports of old women climbing trees in Sudan to forage for leaves to eat; and one-half a billion people go to bed every night with an ache in their belly because it hurts to be hungry. All told, thousands of children die every day from hunger and hunger-related causes. Yet the farmers of South Dakota and North Dakota and Kansas and Montana and Nebraska are told, when they load their truck with wheat or barley and take it to the country elevator, that which they produce has no value. They are told the food somehow has no value, that the price is collapsed because it is not worth very much. It seems to me that much of the world is placing great worth on that which we produce in great abundance on America's farms .

   If we can't find a way to connect that which we produce to those who need it, then we are not thinking hard. The surest road to stability and peace in the world is to try to help people who are hungry. We must place a value on the food our family farmers produce. Again, there is a disconnection there somewhere. We need to find it and reconnect it.

   Let me again say, I hope in the coming couple of weeks we will, in the Senate, make it a priority to write a farm bill , bring it to the floor, and go to conference with the House. We have that obligation to our family farmers . That ought to be our responsibility now. It is not only good for family farmers ; it is good for American security interests, for food security interests to do that. I hope we will do it soon.

   I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

   The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. CORZINE). The clerk will call the roll.

   The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.

   Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

   The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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