Tom Harkin: “to sum up--and I will come back to this later on--we looked at the Nation as a whole. We looked at all farmers in this…”

“to sum up--and I will come back to this later on--we looked at the Nation as a whole. We looked at all farmers in this country. All farmers need help, plus there are others in rural communities who need help. There are conservation programs, as was pointed out by a letter I read from the 130 Members of the House, that need to be continued beyond the end of this fiscal year. We addressed all of these needs, and we did it within the confines of the budget resolution. Each Senator on that side of the aisle or on this side of the aisle who is opposed to our bill could raise a point of order. But no point of order lies against this bill because it is within the budget resolution. Therefore, there is no reason for the President to veto it, unless he simply does not want our apple farmers to receive help, or to extend the dairy price support program, or to help some of our peanut and cottonseed farmers, and others who need this assistance, or perhaps he doesn't think we should have a nutrition program. Quite frankly, we have met our obligations to provide for the full AMTA payment for fiscal year 2001--the full AMTA payment. The House bill only provides 85 percent. I say to my fellow Senators, if you want to provide the same level of assistance to farmers this year under AMTA as we did last year, you cannot support Senator Lugar's amendment. That will wipe it out and make it only 85 percent, which is what the House bill does.”