Byron Dorgan: “I move to instruct the conferees on H. Con. Res. 68, the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2000, to…”

“I move to instruct the conferees on H. Con. Res. 68, the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2000, to include in the conference report provisions that would provide additional funding for income assistance for family farmers above the level provided in the Senate-passed resolution. Why am I asking for favorable consideration on this motion? Yesterday, I read on the Senate floor a letter from a North Dakota woman that I want to read today. Her name is Susan Jorgenson. She wrote in her letter, describing the plight of family farmers, something that I think everybody listening to this debate should digest. Susan Jorgenson has lost her husband. He died last August. She said he had diabetes, but she said: . . .what I really feel caused his death was trying to make a living as a family farmer. She said: I had an auction last week to sell the [farm] machinery so I can pay off some of the debt that [we] incurred after 26 years of farming.”