Tom Harkin: “Then those supplies of grain are available, so we avoid severe shortages and extremely high prices. Mr. President, there…”

“Then those supplies of grain are available, so we avoid severe shortages and extremely high prices. Mr. President, there is an estimate by the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute that, in connection with the 1988 drought, that the substantial stocks of grain on hand, including in the farmer-owned reserve, prevented some $40 billion in extra food costs to consumers because we had that reserve owned by the farmers. So this amendment just basically continues that program of enabling farmers to store their own grain for a period as a reserve and allow them to market in a more orderly way. This is both a profarmer and a proconsumer amendment.”