Byron Dorgan: “Mr. President, if Senator Cochran does not have a speaker, let me then finish by saying that while I think the proposal…”

“Mr. President, if Senator Cochran does not have a speaker, let me then finish by saying that while I think the proposal that was offered today is improved by Senator Cochran--adding the $400 million for crop insurance improves it--as we indicated yesterday, it is not sufficient. It does not provide help for disaster. It provides payments directly to farmers using AMTA. AMTA might sound like a foreign language to some people, but AMTA is a mechanism by which payments are made to people based on a 1991-1995 crop history, and we will have payments going to people who aren't producing anything. All of a sudden, they will open their mailbox and get a check. We will have payments made to people who aren't in trouble at all because AMTA is disconnected from any relationship to production. We have proposed that the payments go with respect to a loan deficiency payment that relates to production, relates to people who are not able to receive the adequate price they need for their commodity. It tries to say let us use scarce public money here, Federal tax dollars, where they might be invested and do the most good. It doesn't make much sense to throw a 5-foot rope to somebody drowning in 30 feet of water. One can say thanks for the rope, but it didn't save anybody.”