Don Nickles: “I want to be in favor of an agriculture bill that is going to help farmers. Unfortunately, I think this bill fails that…”

“I want to be in favor of an agriculture bill that is going to help farmers. Unfortunately, I think this bill fails that test. I look at this bill from a lot of different angles. I want to help agriculture. I think every Member in this body wants to help agriculture. But is this bill the right way to do it? If we pass legislation that is going to greatly encourage production and have the Government paying for a lot of it and then drive prices down, are we helping agriculture in the long run? I am afraid maybe we will be hurting agriculture in the long run. As a matter of fact, there is a study which is just coming out that talks about the price of wheat going down for the next 5 or 6 years as a result of this bill. This bill is a 6-year bill. We are just trying to get a handle on the cost of it. There is a new estimate coming from the Congressional Budget Office that estimates the cost of this bill greatly exceeds the estimates by a total of about $9 billion.”