Mike Thompson

the amendment I am offering, with Senator Sessions and with the support of Chairman Roth, strikes the provision of title I of the bill which provides for a special waiver of the criminal conflict of interest laws for the employee…

It seems the criticism of the amendment, first of all, is that there is no conflict anyway with regard to these employees serving on this board. Of course, if that is the case, there was no reason for the exemption. So by having the…

today's vote for prosecuting Saddam Hussein as a war criminal is important for at least two reasons. First, it highlights again the outrageous and murderous actions Saddam Hussein has taken over the past seven years. Second, it injects new…

I appreciate the attention being given to the Government Secrecy Act, S. 712, by Senator Lott and Senator Daschle. I also wish to commend Senators Moynihan and Helms for the hard work they have put into this issue as Senate members of the…

That is absolutely correct and the fact that to my knowledge no one disputed the findings of the report. It was a very thorough report, but also it really crystallized the problems that small and minority farmers have. The most egregious…

I would say that Secretary Glickman had the novel idea that, now that we have the problems documented, we can move and solve them right away.

to the question of fundamental fairness, I am convinced that if this proposition is put before this body, that if, in fact, the record says that these individuals have, in fact, been aggrieved by an Agency of the United States Government…

Oh, absolutely. And the civil rights action team report documents all the wrongs.

Well, if the gentlewoman will yield, with an abundance of caution, Mr. Eddie Ross from Vicksburg, Mississippi was in a similar situation. He signed a settlement agreement in November of last year, and we only got his check last Friday.

So even though you sign the settlement agreement, the ink is dry, it is not over until the check is received.

What I would like to do, since the gentlewoman from North Carolina has joined us, is ask the gentlewoman to talk about the Grant family and the dilemma that they have gone through for the last 20 years, and how expectations have been…

Your comments, I would say to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Hilliard), go clearly and factually to the notion that there just might be a conspiracy which our government is participating in to do away with African-American farmers in this…

Well, can the gentleman, for the viewing public, explain the statute of limitations and the government not doing its job in conducting an investigation and telling that farmer that either your complaint has validity or it does not? But the…

Now they say it is too late. We waited too long in the deception. I am sorry. You have to take your complaint elsewhere.

Well, Madam Chairman, the notion of the statute of limitation in effect says that if you filed a discrimination complaint against the Department of Agriculture before 1994, then in effect you have lost your right to complain, because our…

On our stationery from the Department of Agriculture it says that if you feel that you have been discriminated against, you may file a complaint with the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Agriculture, Washington…

Absolutely correct. The most astounding thing associated with your comments is that the Department of Agriculture agreed that in effect they had discriminated against African-American and other small farmers, put it in writing and…

I am not so convinced that if they did challenge the law, that our government would not try to defend the law. So in essence, we would be in court another 5 years trying to get clarification on that.

Well, Madam Speaker, what happened, they told the people that processed the check, but then they did not go back and tell them but we are not going to mail it, do not send the statement out, because if you do, you let the cat out of the…

The other problem associated with the timing is how our farmers put their applications for support into the United States Department of Agriculture. And if they are late in putting the applications in or if there are complaints…

Well, I do not want to delve too deeply into the motivations of anyone. People can have different reasons for their thoughts. But it does puzzle me because, you know, in looking back at the history of this thing, some of the leading…

I have heard that often. That was part of what we heard over the last several months. Everybody doesn't do it. Everybody doesn't do the things that we saw the Clinton-Gore campaign do last time. I think everybody doesn't do what their…

So we decided that--I think the country decided, after that, that we needed to decide what we wanted to have corporations and large labor unions do. Clearly, they needed to participate. We set up political action committees and decided how…

Is not being pushed hard enough, I don't think. We finally got a couple of indictments on matters that have been on the public record for a long, long time now. I am willing to reserve a certain amount of judgment to see what comes up…

As a practical matter, I think there are no restraints. I think under the present situation, with the FEC interpretations that have come down, with the Attorney General decisions and opinions that she has made, I literally think that you…