Chuck Grassley: “this so called stimulus package includes a lot of money for agriculture. Since I am the only working family farmer in…”

“this so called stimulus package includes a lot of money for agriculture. Since I am the only working family farmer in the Senate, I think it's important that I point out the biggest problems with the agriculture spending we are considering. The first problem that I see involves the section on commodity purchases. This section has been described by the chairman as a list of agriculture commodities which have experienced low prices in the 2000 or 2001 crop year. Due to what has been described as an ``economic shortfall'' experienced by these commodities the chairman would like to institute a short-term purchase program. In the past, when I sat on the Agriculture Committee, we did provide short-term relief for specific commodities. But before we provided that relief and spent tax dollars we justified that spending by reviewing economic data which defined the problems specific commodities were experiencing. My point is that if we are going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on these commodities, doesn't the other side need to at least show us the data that led them to include these commodities? I am the ranking member on the committee, and I have not heard from one farmer in America that this is needed.”