Saxby Chambliss: “Well, again, if the Senator would yield, I say this is not a perfect product. It is not maybe exactly what you would…”

“Well, again, if the Senator would yield, I say this is not a perfect product. It is not maybe exactly what you would like or what I would or what Senator Harkin would like, or any member of our committee or this body. But when you take the interest of agriculture all across America, I think this farm bill truly represents the needs of American farmers. It represents the needs of our nutrition folks around the country, whether it be the School Lunch Program, our food banks, or our food stamp beneficiaries. It represents the needs from a conservation standpoint, both farmers and nonfarmers who want to maintain the integrity of the land and the environment. It looks at the needs from a research standpoint, looks at the needs as you mentioned from an oil dependency standpoint, and helps move us in the direction of becoming less dependent on foreign oil. At the same time, it does it, as the Senator well knows because he is chairman of the Budget Committee, within the numbers that were given to us by the Budget Committee. I daresay this is the first bill that has hit the floor this year that does, in fact, stay within the budget numbers. We can argue about that, but the fact is, we were given a budget number by your committee, and we had to craft a farm bill that gave us significantly less money than what we had in 2002. With your leadership, and Senator Harkin, we have been able to craft a farm bill that fits within those budget numbers.”