Jon Tester: “I would like to ask the chairwoman of the Agriculture Committee if she would be kind enough to stay for a few questions.…”

“I would like to ask the chairwoman of the Agriculture Committee if she would be kind enough to stay for a few questions. I came to talk today about the Veterans Jobs Corps Act, but agriculture and food security is very important to this country. First of all, I wish to commend the chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee for putting out an agriculture bill that I think really meets the needs of this country and definitely the agricultural community. First of all, I just have to ask--the Agriculture bill sent out of the Senate provides a good safety net for those in production agriculture. I know the Senator took that into account. Whether you are a dairy producer, a corn producer, a wheat producer, or whatever, it is there. The Senator comes from the State of Michigan. That is a little different from Montana, but we both know the Midwest has been under incredible drought. There have been fires all over this country. I talked to the ranking member on the train yesterday, and he was talking about fires in Kansas, and we have had fires in Montana. Is there disaster assistance in this bill, if the House were to take it up and pass it? Would we have to worry about that being taken care of in the farm bill?”