Cord Byrd: “last evening, the Senate completed action on the Fiscal Year 2001 appropriations bill for Agriculture, Rural…”

“last evening, the Senate completed action on the Fiscal Year 2001 appropriations bill for Agriculture, Rural Development, and Related Agencies. The bill was passed by a vote of 79 to 13. I commend Senator Cochran, Chairman of the Subcommittee, and Senator Kohl, the Ranking Member, for crafting this very important legislation. This bill includes many ongoing programs that are vital to the American people. It also includes a number of items to deal directly with problems that our farmers and rural residents are facing this year as they struggle to recover from natural disasters last year, and are now faced with the reality of continuing drought. Overall, in Division A, the bill provides a total of $75.6 billion in non-emergency spending for fiscal year 2001. Of that amount, a little more than $60 billion is for mandatory programs, such as Food Stamps and reimbursements to the Commodity Credit Corporation which funds a wide array of commodity, conservation, and international trade programs. The balance of the non-emergency appropriations in this bill, $14.8 billion, is directed toward discretionary programs and represents an increase of nearly $900 million above last year's level. In addition to the $75.6 billion in Division A of the bill, Division B, as passed by the Senate, contains approximately $2.2 billion in emergency agricultural disaster assistance for the nation's farmers and rural communities.”