Tom Harkin: “we are making progress on the farm bill. We have a couple of big amendments that were very thoroughly debated and voted…”

“we are making progress on the farm bill. We have a couple of big amendments that were very thoroughly debated and voted on. We are ready to move ahead with other amendments. We are ready to move on. If other Senators have amendments, we are open for business. We hope people will come forward. We have maybe some reasonable time limits. On the Lugar amendment we had a decent time limit. We debated it thoroughly. It is vitally important that we finish this farm bill and that we do it expeditiously. I do not know exactly when we are going to go home for Christmas. This farm bill needs to be finished. We need to finish it expeditiously. The House passed their bill, and we need to pass ours and go to conference. We can finish this bill today. I see no reason we can't finish it today if we have some healthy debate on a couple more amendments. I know Senators Cochran and Roberts have an amendment they want to offer, which is a major amendment. We could debate that today and have a vote on that today. There are perhaps other amendments. I haven't seen any, but I have heard about some. I think we could move through this bill today and get it finished and go to conference. I urge all Senators who have amendments to come to the floor.”