Byron Dorgan: “let me ever so briefly agree with my colleagues. I support the efforts of the Senator from Montana. We had a number of…”

“let me ever so briefly agree with my colleagues. I support the efforts of the Senator from Montana. We had a number of meetings today with the Senator from Montana, Senator Burns, Senator Baucus, Senator Larry Craig, Senator Conrad, myself, and others. This is not the preferred solution. I do not view this as a destination. I view this as a step on the way to where we want to get to solve this issue. Senator Conrad said it clearly. The proposal was made that barley growers would receive fixed payments and the first year would be 46 cents. That turns out not to be 46 cents at all but instead 32 cents a bushel. That may not mean much to people, unless you raise some barley and discover that your expected income is now 30 percent lower than you anticipated when you heard about this program and developed support for the program based on the representation of what the fixed payments would be in the farm program. So we will go to conference. This is a device and a mechanism by which this issue can go to conference. My hope is that this issue will be resolved in conference the way it should be resolved. It should be resolved by providing for barley producers what they were told they would receive as fixed payments in the farm bill. The failure to do that, it seems to me, really places at risk the credibility with respect to this farm program.”