Byron Dorgan: “I indicated I wanted to talk today about the appropriations bill conference report that is going to be considered by the…”

“I indicated I wanted to talk today about the appropriations bill conference report that is going to be considered by the Senate. The vote at this point is ordered for tomorrow. It is a vote on the Agriculture appropriations bill conference report. I am a member of the subcommittee dealing with Agriculture appropriations in the Senate. We have had a lengthy conference with the House of Representatives and have reported out a piece of legislation. While I am critical of the farm bill we have in this country because I believe it does not work, I do not want to start with criticism of anything or anybody. Rather, I want to start with compliments. I compliment Senator Thad Cochran who is the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee. He does just an excellent job. I appreciate very much the work he does. I compliment Senator Herb Kohl who is the ranking member on that subcommittee. I thank Galen Fountain, our minority clerk on the subcommittee, who does a lot of work with us, and good work; Rebecca Davies, Martha Scott-Poindexter, Les Spivey, Hunt Shipman--staff people who have done a great deal of work to put this legislation together. On my staff, Dale Thorenson and Nicole Kroetsch, Brian Moran, and Stephanie Mohl, who worked on parts of this. Thanks to all those people.”