Byron Dorgan: “I respect the difficult job the majority leader has. One specific piece of legislation that is very important to me--as…”

“I respect the difficult job the majority leader has. One specific piece of legislation that is very important to me--as are many others--is the Agriculture appropriations bill. I come from a farm State. This is a critically important piece of legislation. The House of Representatives passed an Agriculture appropriations bill on July 11. The Senate passed one on July 20. It is now September 22. I was appointed a conferee for this appropriations conference. I am on the subcommittee, and there has been no appropriations conference at all. We are toward the end of this legislative session, and I worry about the regular process. Will we have an appropriations conference? The reason I am asking this question is, as the majority leader knows, there are some very controversial things in this legislation. One of those controversial issues is a policy that says: Let us stop using food as a weapon. We want to abolish sanctions on food shipments all around the world. It is controversial. Some don't want to do that. Some want to continue to use food sanctions against Cuba and other countries.”