Tom Harkin: “the Domenici amendment is a reflection of failed policies. What it basically says is you pay dairy farmers when markets…”

“the Domenici amendment is a reflection of failed policies. What it basically says is you pay dairy farmers when markets are good. But when the markets are bad, as Senator Landrieu has pointed out time and time again, there is too little help for our dairy farmers. That makes absolutely no sense. Second, we have a balanced dairy program in the bill, carefully crafted, so that no parts of the country are discriminated against. What the Domenici amendment does is it upsets that. It will foster regional fights again and again and again in the future. We do not want that. We have it carefully crafted in this bill. Third, we just overwhelmingly voted for payment limitations, but in the Domenici amendment, no matter how big you are, you can get more and more payments. There is no payment limitation whatsoever, no matter the size of the dairy operation. For those three reasons, I believe the Senate should turn down the Domenici amendment and keep the underlying bill that is fair to the whole country.”