Liz Saville Roberts: “I indicated in my earlier remarks there were some provisions of this bill I would like to outline, and I would like to…”

“I indicated in my earlier remarks there were some provisions of this bill I would like to outline, and I would like to do so at present as a coauthor of the legislation. I said at that particular time we spent a great deal of time--by ``we,'' I mean Senator Kerrey, I, and our staff--sitting down with producers and our farmers and ranchers and virtually every interest group that has a remote interest in this bill. They told us to do the following things: One, to make a higher level of coverage more affordable; Two, to provide an equal subsidy for both yield and revenue insurance products; Three, to develop steps to address the problems associated with a lack of production history for beginning farmers and concerns that an adequate policy does not exist to address the multiple years of disasters. They also told us to try to create new and expanded crop insurance policies for specialty crops and improvements in the Noninsured Assistance Program which covers many of the specialty crops.”