Dick Lugar: “I cannot emphasize, as the Chair knows as a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, the importance of this moment…”

“I cannot emphasize, as the Chair knows as a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, the importance of this moment for agricultural America, for those who have hopes that we will be successful in this endeavor. I simply pay tribute to our leadership on both sides of the aisle for attempting to frame the debate in this way: by beginning with giving me this opportunity to offer an amendment. Let me be clear that the bill before the Senate now came by majority vote from the Senate Agriculture Committee. Essentially, my amendment called for the expenditure of $5.5 billion. It was apportioned through a number of items, about $5 billion-plus of that through the so-called AMTA payments, these payments that have been made to farmers who, as part of the farm program, have had program crops in the last several years.”