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[Page: S11424]  GPO's PDF
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   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.

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