Tom Harkin: “the bipartisan farm bill conference report now before us has been approved overwhelmingly in the House of…”

“the bipartisan farm bill conference report now before us has been approved overwhelmingly in the House of Representatives by a vote of about 2 to 1, and President Bush has pledged to sign it, calling it a significant piece of legislation and, of course, touting the great efforts we made to reach agreement. Now we have the crucial bill before us, and the Senate has the opportunity to join the House and the President with our approval of this legislation. The President said he wants this bill on his desk promptly, and I hope we can do that. I intend to do all I can to make sure that happens. I am sorry we could not have taken this up last week and passed it on Thursday. The President could have signed it this week. But, as I understand, the other side insisted on having a minimum of 12 hours of debate on this. If that is what they want, that is certainly their right. So we are going to have another 2 days of debate on this farm bill. As the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, I am proud to sponsor it. I am proud of all the hard work the conferees and our staff have done. I am proud of the work that the farm groups, conservation groups, anti-hunger, and others across the country have done in seeing this bill through to the end.”