Angie Craig: “let me join with my chairman, Senator Thad Cochran, chairman of the Agricultural Appropriations Subcommittee, who spoke…”

“let me join with my chairman, Senator Thad Cochran, chairman of the Agricultural Appropriations Subcommittee, who spoke with a certain amount of frustration in his voice just a few moments ago. He has every reason to be frustrated. This chairman has bent over backwards in the last 6 months trying to understand and address the agricultural crisis that is now upon America's production agriculture. He has joined with us--those of us here in the Senate who come from strong agricultural States--at every step along the way to see how we could resolve this under current policy. I don't blame his frustration. I came to the floor just a few moments ago to announce that the President is in town for the full week for the first time in a good many weeks, and the first thing he says is that he is going to veto the agriculture appropriations bill. I am critical of this President. Mr. President, wake up. You haven't had a position on agriculture your entire term in office. Now you say, ``I'm going to veto,'' at a time when this Congress has worked collectively, on a very strong bipartisan vote on the House side just last week, 333 House Members, Democrat and Republican, on the very issue that we have on the floor now that the chairman has spoken to and that we will vote on this afternoon. I am not quite sure why he is doing that.…”