Tom Harkin: “the Senate is in session at this late hour--we just finished the telecom bill, a very important bill for our…”

“the Senate is in session at this late hour--we just finished the telecom bill, a very important bill for our country--but we are in session now because we do not have a farm bill. I have been on the Agriculture Committee now for 22 years, 10 in the House, 12 in the Senate. I have seen a lot of farm bills. I have worked on a lot of farm bills. Some were contentious, some sort of passed easily. But in every instance--in every single instance--in the House and in the Senate, we worked diligently on both sides of the aisle to try to reach accommodations to get a farm bill through before the end of the year. In most cases, we got it through long before the end of the year. But I remember some particular ones. I remember the 1981 farm bill when I was in the House. We passed it in the early morning hours of December 17. Why do I remember that? Because my daughter was born about 2 hours later, and I remember being on the floor trying to get the farm bill passed.”