Kent Conrad

I will be happy to yield with the understanding I be recognized after the Senator from Pennsylvania takes care of the business he has brought to the floor. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the Senator…

Many malting barley growers believe that current GIPSA measurement standards are unacceptable. When the Congress reauthorized the Grain Standards Act late last year, the Senator and I discussed these measurement standards. The Senate…

I believe the Senator from Indiana, the chairman of the Agriculture Committee, is aware that barley growers are concerned about the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration testing of…

That we should not bet the farm on a specific number with a 10-year forecast because of the failure of previous forecasts to be accurate over such an extended period.

The Senator may recall that Mr. Anderson put up a chart and the chart showed that in the fifth year of this 10-year forecast, based on the previous variances in their projections, we could have a budget that was anywhere from a $50 billion…

I see the Senator has that chart that shows in the year 2006, which is 5 years into this 10-year forecast, we could have anywhere from a $50 billion deficit to over a $1 trillion surplus. That is the uncertainty of their forecast…

The Senator may recall when we had the Congressional Budget Office personnel before us, they were the ones who made this forecast of the surplus, and yet they themselves warned us of the uncertainty of their projections.

I want to indicate my strong disagreement with Mr. Daniels on that position. I think that is the entirely wrong position to take. In fact, in the U.S. Senate, on a bipartisan basis, we voted overwhelmingly, last year, on a provision I…

He said he is willing to protect the Social Security trust fund but he is not willing to protect the Medicare trust fund. They both ought to be protected. Neither one of them should be raided.

I remember it very well. In fact they had what they called a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution but what they were doing to balance the budget was to raid the Social Security trust funds to achieve balance. That would have been…

I found him to be a fierce advocate for the people of Missouri, just as I have found Senator Bond and Senator Ashcroft to be fierce advocates for the people of Missouri. I found Governor Carnahan to be absolutely ferocious on the issues…

We are faced with one of the toughest downturns in the agricultural markets in the history of our country. We currently have the lowest real prices for farm commodities in 50 years, and we are in a very serious situation as a result…

I thank Senator Stevens as well. I thank Senator Cochran and others who helped craft this agreement--Senator Kohl. Because the fact is, there are real disasters and real emergencies. In my State where, on June 12, 20 inches of rain fell in…

Again, I thank the courtesy of the Chair. We have been hit by unprecedented natural disasters. This body has been generous in responding, whether it was in North Dakota or New Mexico. I just hope we do not ever lose that generosity of…

I am willing to withdraw my amendment in light of assurances that the study is underway and will continue to accord the B-52 full, fair, and thorough consideration as a potential dedicated EW platform.

The reason our side resisted that lockbox approach is because we received a letter from the Secretary of the Treasury from which I quote: Our analysis indicates that the provisions Senators Domenici and Abraham and Ashcroft were previously…

Last Friday I was necessarily absent from the Senate to survey recent flood damage in North Dakota. For a period of three days, rain, hail and tornadoes inundated northeast North Dakota and, sadly, four people lost their lives. My duty was…

Here we have the American Law Division of the Library of Congress, which houses the Congressional Research Service, telling us this statute authored by Senator McConnell would be upheld as constitutional. That is the best advice we have…

Microsoft month. That might be a lucrative thing, to auction this off. That might be a way to solve the budget problem, instead of going to the 13-month plan the Republicans have, is to actually auction off a month. I think kind of the…

Can you imagine? I wonder what is going to happen in the schools of America now that the Republicans have said there are 13 months. Can you imagine the confusion of the elementary schools as they are teaching children their months? Where…

I think our friends are going off on a tangent that should not be pursued. I think this would be a profound mistake. The last thing we need to do is solve our fiscal problems by creating a fiction of a 13-month year. That isn't what we…

I think the President did make a mistake. I don't think it was appropriate to extend clemency to these people. I hope this is an issue that we can address by resolution and make clear where the Senate stands.

I wish it were not the case but, unfortunately, it is. We had, I think, hoped--certainly the Senator from South Carolina and I-- that we would be at a point where we really would reserve every penny of Social Security surplus for Social…

To privatize it or raid it in some other way. We really do not know. I was very interested to listen to the Senator from Texas say--say--that they had reserved every penny of Social Security surplus for Social Security. That is what we…

They had one, but they did not have a budget there. It is most amazing. As my colleague knows, a conference is the representatives of the Senate and the representatives of the House coming together to work out the differences between the…