Robert Smith: “Mr. Chairman, now that the entertainment is over, we ought to be talking about the issue that is before us and the…”

“Mr. Chairman, now that the entertainment is over, we ought to be talking about the issue that is before us and the amendment before us, and having survived these dairy wars in the past, I thought it was possible that we might get by one more time, but of course that did not happen. Frankly, I became involved because I believed that this was not the time or the place to debate again the finality of what is going to happen to dairy. It was my understanding that my colleagues in 1996 passed a bill called the Freedom to Farm bill which ends subsidies, and I thought that was the process that we were going through. But that did not occur, and in an effort to assist the people in the Midwest I offered a program to merely extend for 6 months the existing issue, all in a manner to keep the peace. Well, obviously the people in the Midwest are now suggesting that that is not enough, but it was a compromise, and it was agreed to by the gentleman on this side and ladies and gentlemen on that side. We thought it was a agreement. Now what is wrong with allowing the authorizers and the appropriators another session, since this is late in this one and since, thank God, I will not be here to have to enlist in this argument again, what is wrong with allowing the next Congress, authorizers and appropriators, to deliberate and debate this issue in depth? I thought I was offering a reasonable amendment.”