Kent Conrad: “I say to my colleague, there is no question in my mind what the consequences will be. No. 1, substantially less money to…”

“I say to my colleague, there is no question in my mind what the consequences will be. No. 1, substantially less money to write a new farm bill than the money left in this budget. No. 2, that means a totally inadequate farm bill. No. 3, that means hard-pressed farmers would be in even more serious shape because we failed to use the money that was available in this year's budget to write a farm bill that would strengthen their economic condition. I want to make this as clear as it can be. They say they have received assurances that the resources necessary to fund a farm bill above the current baseline will be available next year. No. 1, there is no statement there about how much above the current baseline. The current baseline was predicated on the old farm bill--the old farm bill that was a total failure, the old farm bill that required us to write four disaster assistance bills in the last 4 years. This has no assurance that it is going to be the same amount of money that is in the budget this year. In fact, we know the administration doesn't want us to have the same amount of money. They have proposed a dramatic cut from what is in the budget this year to write a new farm bill. That is the dirty little secret. They proposed a substantial cut. Instead of over the next 5 years $40 billion being available, they have said only $25 billion ought to be available. Guess what.…”