Angie Craig: “first I thank Chairman Kohl and Senator Cochran for the hard work they have put into the fiscal year 2001 Agriculture…”

“first I thank Chairman Kohl and Senator Cochran for the hard work they have put into the fiscal year 2001 Agriculture, Rural Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill. It is a challenging process, and they have done an excellent job balancing competing interests within the confines of a balanced budget. I wish to engage in a colloquy with the distinguished chairman of the subcommittee regarding the appropriation for the Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service. The committee has provided a $13.3 million increase in the budget for NASS. I would like to clarify with the chairman and ranking member that the increase provides $125,000 to conduct a potato objective yield, size and grade survey. NASS has developed a plan to conduct a potato size and grade survey for the seven major potato producing States. The intent of the survey is to provide all market participants with comprehensive potato size and grade data. These data are crucial information to both potato growers and buyers in estimating the current potato crop's quality. All involved market parties will use this unbiased information when negotiating sale or purchase contracts of processing potatoes. The National Potato Council, which represents all segments of the potato industry, has identified that these data are imperative to the orderly marketing of the annual potato crop.”