William Bryan: “Mr. President, I think that those who have followed the debate on agricultural issues know that this Senator has not…”

“Mr. President, I think that those who have followed the debate on agricultural issues know that this Senator has not been a supporter of the Market Promotion Program. In the limited time that I have available this morning, I want to offer an amendment that was previously approved on the floor of the Senate on September 20 of last year by 62 to 36. My preference would be to eliminate the Market Promotion Program, which has cost the American taxpayer more than $1 billion, because I think it is a poster child for corporate entitlements in America and is without justification. I yield to the pragmatic consideration that, although I have attempted on a number of occasions, joined by my friends on the floor, Senator Kerry and Senator Bumpers, to eliminate this program, we have been unsuccessful. So last September we crafted a compromise which said, among other things, that we will limit this program so that foreign corporations will no longer be eligible to receive payments. I might say parenthetically that in the last year in which there is data available, some $12 million of taxpayer money went to foreign corporations to help them supplement their advertising budgets.”