Kent Conrad: “That assurance is meaningless. That assurance by the administration that the resources are going to be available next…”

“That assurance is meaningless. That assurance by the administration that the resources are going to be available next year is meaningless. Why is it meaningless? It is meaningless because the administration plays no role in the writing of the budget resolution. That is purely a congressional document. It does not even go to the President. It is considered in the House and in the Senate, and it is conferenced between the House and the Senate and it never goes to the President. I am the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. I want to alert my colleagues that anyone who believes the same amount of money is going to be available next year as is available this year is absolutely in a dream world. I understand the Secretary of Agriculture has called Members in the last few days telling them money is not a problem, that she has been assured by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Mr. Daniels, that money is not a problem. Wrong. Money is a problem. Money is going to be a big problem. We have funding in the current year budget to write a new farm bill. We have $74 billion over the so-called baseline with which to write a new farm bill. Those resources were provided because it was understood without additional resources we could not write an adequate farm bill because the so-called baseline is based on the previous farm bill that has proved to be such a failure. It has been a disaster itself.”