Tom Harkin: “I wish to, again, respond to my friend from Pennsylvania and to a Statement of Administration Policy that we have just…”

“I wish to, again, respond to my friend from Pennsylvania and to a Statement of Administration Policy that we have just received. It is not from the President. I don't really know what to make of this letter. It said they opposed the bill that we have before us because spending authorized by the bill would exceed $5.5 billion, the amount provided in the budget resolution and the amount adopted by the House. It is the amount adopted by the House, but it is not the amount provided in the budget resolution. The budget resolution provided two amounts: $5.5 billion this year and $7.35 billion next year. We stayed within the $5.5 billion for this year. Then we had $7.35 billion for next year. The administration is saying we can't spend what the budget resolution provides. The administration has nothing to do with this. This is something that is internal to the Congress. If we are meeting our budget obligations, why should the administration care? Evidently, the administration must be opposed to how we are spending the money. How are we spending the money? In the next fiscal year we are spending money on a lot of our specialty crops such as apples. I mentioned in my earlier talk about how our apple farmers are being hurt. We heard that the livestock sector is rebounding. But that doesn't mean the crop sector is rebounding. Far from it. We have specialty crops in peas and lentils. I mentioned apples.”