On the recordMay 23, 2013
Mr. President, I would like to take a few moments to thank colleagues for their work this week, to thank my partner Senator Cochran and both of our staffs, who have been working very hard to complete the process of this very important jobs bill called the farm bill. Let me take a moment to remind everyone that we are talking about 16 million jobs in America that come because of agriculture, because of what we do in the food industry altogether. It is incredibly important we complete this work. I am very confident when we come back into session in another week that we will complete our process. I thank our majority leader and the Republican leader for their support in our moving through this process, and certainly our majority leader, Senator Reid, who has been incredibly supportive in working with us and giving us the time to come directly from committee to the floor of the Senate and to work with colleagues through amendments on both sides of the aisle to get this done. We are doing this the way we have always done it, which is in a bipartisan fashion, working through both Democratic and Republican amendments. At the end we will have produced what I believe is the most reform-minded farm bill in decades. Let me also remind my colleagues we have before us a bill that is different than anything I can think of actually in terms of deficit reduction.…





