Byron Dorgan: “I am going to visit today about the fast-track trade debate that we are expected to take up here in the U.S. Senate in…”

“I am going to visit today about the fast-track trade debate that we are expected to take up here in the U.S. Senate in the next couple of weeks. It is an interesting topic. I expect it will be a hotly contested debate as it deals with international trade. I was in North Dakota last week, and I assume the presiding officer was in Kansas and my other colleagues from here in the Senate were in their home States. I saw an interesting editorial in the largest newspaper in North Dakota, the Fargo Forum. The editorial says: Farm Economy Is at Risk. Then it describes the problems that our family farmers are facing in North Dakota including, problems of lower production because of crop disease, the lack of moisture in some parts of our State, too much moisture in other parts of our State, and very low prices that they receive for their grain. The editorial talks about an average size farm penciling out to a $23,000 loss in net worth this year.”