Pete Domenici: “fellow Senators, we are having a drought in the State of New Mexico that is about as serious a situation as we have had.…”

“fellow Senators, we are having a drought in the State of New Mexico that is about as serious a situation as we have had. We have read about the forest fires. Obviously, the forest is dry, but, also, the grazing land is dry. The ranchers are unable to graze cattle. That is a very important part of our life in New Mexico. Today, I am introducing a bill. Yesterday, I introduced one with Senator Bingaman. He was the prime sponsor. Today he joins me in this one, which would take some of the assistance that is given for other crops in the event of a disaster and make that apply to the forage that goes for cattle. We think maybe it was intended, but it is not clear. So this would provide emergency relief to some of the cattle people in our State and in the arid parts of America where we are having a disaster with drought. It makes some of this available to them. Because of the forage they use for the cattle, it would make that subject to the same kind of emergency assistance as other crops when those crops are in a drought situation.”