Angie Craig: “before the Chair rules, let me explain why I presented this legislation. It is detailed in the sense of the titles of…”

“before the Chair rules, let me explain why I presented this legislation. It is detailed in the sense of the titles of the law of 1949 that it would repeal. Obviously, in hearing from the Secretary of Agriculture, he, by the action of his own President in vetoing the Budget Reconciliation Act that laid farm policy out in it, is in a tremendous quandary at this moment. He has to implement a very cumbersome and costly law, the provisions of the 1949 Agricultural Adjustment Act. It does not fit modern-day agriculture. I am sure the Senator from North Dakota and I are extremely concerned about family farms. We have worked together on that issue on the Agriculture Committee of the Senate in an effort to resolve those problems. I do not impugn his intention nor do I believe he impugns mine. But clearly we need policy. Policy has been created. Policy has been passed by this Congress. And policy has been vetoed by this President, the very kind of policy that would have created the certainty, that would have avoided the kind of frustrations that the Senator and I are involved in right now. So by action here tonight I have attempted to say that which has been worked on should be freestanding legislation, that we ought to have a right to vote up or down on it, and that I hope then that the President would sign it.”