Kent Conrad: “just a couple of quick additional points so we can, hopefully, persuade the occupant of the chair of the wisdom of this…”

“just a couple of quick additional points so we can, hopefully, persuade the occupant of the chair of the wisdom of this amendment. I think he is perhaps right on the brink, now, of coming over to our side. If we can just provide him some additional information, he will come to our side on this argument. The Senator from Pennsylvania was indicating that just a handful of States would be eligible. That strikes me as an indication of the weakness of their argument. If the argument is this underlying bill is not so bad because only a handful of States can qualify, that does not speak very well of the position in the legislation. The fact is, not a handful of States qualify; every State can qualify. Every State can qualify. Every State could be in a position of not meeting the needs of hungry people at the time of economic recession or natural disaster. The facts I have suggest that about half the States now could take block grant with no cost. Others could come in by paying a small cost. But within 2 or 3 years, nearly 40 States would be in a position to be in the block grant at no cost.”