WASHINGTON, D.C. (December 13, 2001) — The Senate must finish its work on the farm bill today to ensure legislation will be enacted this year to provide a much-needed economic stimulus for America's farmers, ranchers and the rural communities they support, farm groups said today.

"The new farm bill must be enacted this year for America’s farmers and ranchers. Time is quickly running out for passage of this critical legislation that will provide a much-needed economic stimulus for the nation’s rural economy," representatives from the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Farmers Union said today at a Capitol Hill news conference.

"Our rural economy has been in trouble for four years now, with no quick turnaround in sight," the groups said. "Our producers are suffering during this period of depressed commodity prices. Enactment of a new farm bill will help."

Farm Bureau and the Farmers Union joined Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, in calling for completion of the Senate’s farm bill work today. The groups praised Daschle’s and Harkin’s efforts to move the bill near completion, but called on other senators to help agriculture by finishing the debate and approving the measure today.

The groups reminded senators that producers and their lenders need the certainty and stability of a new farm bill to plan for next year’s crops.

"Without an all-out bipartisan effort by Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, farmers will continue to face uncertainty," the groups said. "As farmers look at the prospect of next year’s crops being governed under current policy, which has proven inadequate, they wonder why many of their elected leaders are not moving to quickly finish discussion on this bill, reconcile it with the House and send it to the president."

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