Dick Lugar: “I rise to speak about the Agricultural Risk Protection Act of 2000. I am very pleased this legislation is before the…”

“I rise to speak about the Agricultural Risk Protection Act of 2000. I am very pleased this legislation is before the Senate today for final consideration after a great deal of work by Senators of both parties and both sides of this Capitol. I am here to testify that there is proud bipartisan support for this legislation, highlighted by the fact that all members of the conference committee for this legislation signed the conference report after our meeting yesterday. This conference report contains several titles. Title I pertains to crop insurance important to so many agriculture producers throughout the country. The fiscal year 2001 budget resolution provided $8 billion over 5 years for crop insurance legislation. This conference report increases premium subsidies to make crop insurance more affordable. The bill also tightens program integrity provisions to limit abuse. It also helps producers of non-insured crops, predominantly specialty crops, by making the non-insured assistance program more readily available to them. Finally, the legislation encourages farmers to adopt a broad array of risk management activities beyond crop insurance alone. Title II of this conference report provides $7.14 billion in economic assistance to farmers as provided in the fiscal year 2001 budget resolution. Included in this conference report is $5.466 for a market loss payment for farmers in this fiscal year based on last year's AMTA payment rate.”