Byron Dorgan: “The Department indicates that the majority party in constructing the freedom to farm bill made the error. I do not know…”

“The Department indicates that the majority party in constructing the freedom to farm bill made the error. I do not know who made the error. I do know this. That when someone signs up for a program and is told they will get 46 cents a bushel for a barley payment under a contract, and then are told later, ``Well, gee. That was wrong. You actually are going to get 30 percent less than that,'' and, where this is the only crop in the country that is put in that position, our position is let's go ahead and make them whole. We do not have to wait forever to do that. Let us try to find a way to do that now. It has been kicking around here for a while. I have talked to the Senator from Montana, Mr. Burns, so I know you have been working with him, and Senator Baucus. My understanding is some of the original discussions about that would be maybe to fix part of the problem. I would very much like to fix this problem so that those who signed up on the basis of getting 46 cents a bushel for barley will be able to understand that is what they are going to get. That is what everybody else got. Everybody else got exactly what this Congress told them they would get as a payment under freedom to farm. It was a fixed payment. It did not require rocket scientists to understand what it was going to be; it was a fixed payment. Everybody signed up and understood what they were going to get.”