Saxby Chambliss: “let me wind up with a couple of responses to some of the comments that have been made. First, Senator Dorgan got up and…”

“let me wind up with a couple of responses to some of the comments that have been made. First, Senator Dorgan got up and said we had one farm that had gotten $37 million over 5 years. That is preposterous. It is wrong. It is simply incorrect. The Senator from Arkansas made it very plain there is one cooperative that has 9,000 members, called Riceland. The entity which Senator Dorgan was talking about was not an individual farmer. There is no provision in the current law that would allow such payments to be made. That is simply wrong. Secondly, there was a statement made that 55 dead farmers received payments. Let me tell you what happened so the American people understand. A farmer goes into the Farm Service Agency at the beginning of the year, and he fills out a form. That form says how much he is going to plant of each specific crop. They then know what payments they qualify for. Those checks are sent out during different times of the year and even into the next year after the farm season is over. It is unfortunate that 55 farmers died during that year before they got their checks. I am sorry about that. But those farmers were family farmers. Their families deserve that income because that family member was actively engaged in farming at the time he went into the office and made the application. I kind of resent that. We talk about the fact that we want to continue the family farm.…”