Byron Dorgan: “This has been a very frustrating time for a number of reasons. The Senate seems to have begun moving in slow motion, if…”

“This has been a very frustrating time for a number of reasons. The Senate seems to have begun moving in slow motion, if that, in recent days and weeks. Last week I recall we had the Department of Transportation bill on the floor. We had very few workdays remaining before the August break and very important legislation to get finished or completed by then. Despite this, during proceedings on the Department of Transportation bill, the Senate was in quorum call after quorum call. No one would bring amendments to the floor. What we had, it appeared to me, was kind of a deliberate slowdown. Now, we have brought an emergency Agriculture bill to the floor of the Senate--an emergency supplemental. I understand some people would prefer to provide less money to family farmers who are in some trouble, some real trouble because of collapsed grain prices. They would like to provide less money. I understand that. They have a right to offer amendments to reduce the amount of help for family farmers. We had one such amendment today, and the amendment lost. It is a rather frustrating time because even to get to the emergency bill to help family farmers, we had to file a cloture motion to proceed, for gosh sakes, not even on the bill. It was a debate on whether or not we should debate the bill. This is an emergency supplemental appropriations bill. That was on Friday. Then on Monday, we had to vote on the cloture motion. Now we are at the end of the day on Tuesday.…”