Chuck Grassley: “But in the paragraph you were quoting, it says exactly the same thing in the letter I got of November 15 in which they…”

“But in the paragraph you were quoting, it says exactly the same thing in the letter I got of November 15 in which they were commenting on 1759, and they surely can't find the same fault with the amendment that they found with the bill because we met with them and made changes according to what they asked us to do. My staff corrects me that we didn't actually meet with the Department of Justice, but we were well aware of the changes they were demanding, and those changes are taken into consideration in this legislation. Then we keep hearing from the Senator from Kansas about investigations and reviews. Get that out of your system. I have spoken twice on that issue--no reviews, no investigation. Then when you hear all of these faults the bill is going to bring about--you are going to increase the cost of food to the consumer or maybe decrease profitability to the farmer--I don't see that anything like that is a result of a task force that is going to help the Justice Department and the FTC in determining whether mergers are anticompetitive. These are guidelines. They are not making decisions. The Department of Justice and the FTC will be making those decisions. But is there anything wrong with having a little bit of input into agricultural issues before those two agencies from experts in this town in the Department of Agriculture who may have some understanding of agriculture? I don't think the sky is going to fall if you have that sort of input.”