Tom Harkin: “I was privileged to be in our capital city of Des Moines 2 days ago, on Monday, January 27, and I was privileged to…”

“I was privileged to be in our capital city of Des Moines 2 days ago, on Monday, January 27, and I was privileged to visit a lot of my friends in the Iowa legislature. I was in the Iowa House on Monday morning when a resolution was brought up by Representative Dan Muhlbauer and read and adopted unanimously. It was a resolution requesting the U.S. Congress to immediately enact a new Federal food, farm, and jobs bill. I won't read it all, but ultimately I will ask unanimous consent to have this resolution printed in the Record. The resolution basically points out how much a farm bill means to our fellow Iowans. The resolution states: Be it resolved by the House of Representatives-- That is the Iowa House of Representatives-- that with the reconvening of the United States Congress after its holiday recess, the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate should enact a new food, farm, and jobs bill with all possible speed but no later than January 31 of 2014. I guess the good news I have now for Representative Muhlbauer and his colleagues on both sides of the aisle in the Iowa legislature is that we heard them. Under the great leadership of Senator Stabenow, we now have a farm bill ready to come to the floor after the House passes it, I hope sometime today. We hope to have it on the Senate floor maybe as early as tomorrow--if not, the first of the week--to get the job done. I think everybody has signed off on it. It is a good farm bill.…”