Byron Dorgan: “Let me, first of all, support my colleague, Senator Conrad. He knows and I know that the Agriculture appropriations bill…”

“Let me, first of all, support my colleague, Senator Conrad. He knows and I know that the Agriculture appropriations bill includes a disaster piece that I added in the committee many months ago. That amendment I offered in the committee was one we had worked on with Senator Conrad and many other Senators on a bipartisan basis. It was Senator Conrad and myself who were recognized in the committee to offer the agricultural disaster plan. That was in the spring of this year. Subsequent to that, we have now had a very substantial drought that has enveloped a fair part of this country, devastating some additional crops, and we have not been able to get the Agriculture appropriations bill back to the Senate so we can make an adjustment to the disaster plan for farmers, an adjustment to include the 2006 disaster, but we have not been able to get it to the floor of the Senate.”