Tom Harkin

I am pleased to join my Senate colleagues in recognizing January as National Biotechnology Month. At the dawn of this new century, it is fitting for us to recognize the promise and potential of biotechnology. With the mapping of the human…

When you look at this table, you can see why it is such a poison pill. I am greatly troubled by the vote coming up. I have been on this committee and the subcommittee now since 1985. I have been privileged to chair it and then to be the…

Now, my friend from Pennsylvania, for whom I have the highest respect and affinity, is right; there are a lot of good things in this bill. It reminds me of sitting down at a dinner and you have a smorgasbord of prime rib, steaks, lamb…

I want to reflect on the passing of one of the true giants in the Senate, someone with whom I was privileged to work for the last 15 years I have been in the Senate--Senator John Chafee, a good man with a great heart and a great soul, a…

the amendment propounded by the distinguished Senator from Arkansas really would harm the NLRB drastically. The Senator from Arkansas said the caseload had gone down. That is true, the caseload did go down, I assume because we increased…

all I can say is, I wish they could put Senator Specter and me in a room. I think we would come up with a good bipartisan bill. We have already. Because of some outside influences, we are going to have some real problems. That is a shame…

I again thank Senator Specter and his staff for all of their hard work in putting this bill together. Senator Specter has done, indeed, a commendable job. He has done so in a professional and bipartisan fashion under very difficult and…

I want to make clear that IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, is not a Federal mandate. The Senator from New Hampshire keeps talking about it as a Federal mandate. But saying it does not make it so. The Individuals with…

I want to make it clear, do I support the goal of getting up to 40 percent of the national per pupil expenditure up to $2,750 per student? I do. But I don't believe we ought to do it at the expense of afterschool programs or out of Head…

It seems to me that for the bastion of democracy, those of us in this country who believe so deeply in the right of the secret ballot, the right of people to be able to vote for their futures, to see this happen and for us to stand back…

It is 8.8. So, again, I hope that Senators will see fit to at least endorse and vote for this package. The amendment offered by Senator Cochran has no money for section 32 purchases, which I think is going to be very important for our pork…

I thank the Senator. That is a step in the right direction to put that $400 million for the Crop Insurance Program. That was in our initial proposal. I am delighted to see it in this one. But I must say the entire package is still not…

I appreciate that. We can work on that. The Senator may not be wrong on that. That may be closer to what we probably should be doing. There are other things in that disaster part I tell the Senator to look at. We did not completely fill…

first of all, I compliment and thank my colleague from North Dakota for crafting this new proposal and for all of his hard work on behalf of farmers and ranchers all over this country. Senator Dorgan has, indeed, been a leader in this…

as I look at the bill, you have reduced the livestock and dairy portion of the Cochran amendment from $325 million to $250 million.

I beg to differ. The blue-ribbon panel's conclusions support the Senator's resolution. What we are talking about is phasing out MTBE, and encouraging the use of ethanol--an oxygenate that reduces air pollution and at the same time does not…

I ask the author of the amendment exactly how this differs from the last package, the Cochran amendment, which is set aside right now. As I look at it, the difference between this package and what we voted on yesterday, the Cochran…

first, I just respond to my friend from Oklahoma by saying that they can still go ahead and have the hearings and everything else after we adopt the sense-of-the-Senate resolution. Nothing prevents the committee from going ahead and…

I might just say that I think the $400 million in disaster payments for this year...is still inadequate, too low. From all of the indications we get from disasters up and down the east coast, in the Mid-Atlantic States, plus some of the…

I think the Senator from Minnesota put his finger on it. When I heard the Senator from Kansas speak, it seemed as if what he was saying was that we are going to leave farmers and ranchers out there at the mercy of the grain companies, the…

In the Republicans' proposal, the maximum payments that an individual can receive--by setting up partnerships or corporations to maneuver around the limits--would be $460,000. Nearly half a million dollars to one individual.

I could not agree more. I would proffer this. If all we do is pass this emergency package, either this one or the scaled-down package of the Republicans, and we do nothing else, farmers are going to see the handwriting on the wall. If we…

In responding to my friend from Minnesota, I was meeting with farmers this week in Iowa talking about our emergency package. On more than one occasion the farmers got up and said: We appreciate what you are trying to do. We can sure use…

Quite frankly, I find myself in a very uncomfortable position. This is extremely uncomfortable for me. I think the pending amendments are the ultimate statement on the failure of the current farm policy. Why do I say it is uncomfortable…

I answer to my friend from Mississippi that all of the items in our amendment are direct appropriations for next year. The only items that are not are the Cotton Step Two Export Program, and that is scored by CBO at $439 million for 3…