Byron Dorgan: “Payments, as I understand them, have gone too far in the current farm bill, the underlying farm bill; too high in the…”

“Payments, as I understand them, have gone too far in the current farm bill, the underlying farm bill; too high in the disaster programs. Perhaps both programs should be adjusted lower. My understanding of the program that has been offered earlier today, by the majority party, is with the triple-entity rule, the payment limits would effectively, under that rule, be about $460,000--under their disaster package. In my judgment, that is too high. In my judgment, we should craft a farm program and craft disaster programs that target help for family-size farms. If that is not what it is about, my feeling has always been, if we are not targeting help to family farmers, we don't need a Department of Agriculture. The only reason to have all of this is to help family farmers.”