John Thune: “I rise today to address some issues that are pending before the Senate, and I also want to acknowledge what I hope will…”

“I rise today to address some issues that are pending before the Senate, and I also want to acknowledge what I hope will be action we will take somewhere down the road regarding a situation in South Dakota that we are experiencing this year. We are experiencing what is, I would say, probably a 100-year drought. We are having extraordinarily high temperatures. We haven't had rain. In fact, the rain accumulations this year in South Dakota are less than the rain in many years throughout the Great Depression back in the 1930s, and it is having a devastating impact on our economy and the farmers and ranchers in South Dakota on which our economy relies. In fact, if one looks at the small grain crop, the wheat crop in South Dakota was a complete bust, a 100-percent loss in many areas of South Dakota. The row crops, corn and soybeans, are extremely stressed. Much of that crop will be lost this year as well. Cattle producers are selling their herds, liquidating their herds, creating all kinds of economic issues for my State of South Dakota. What I hope is that as time goes on, we will have an opportunity to address in some fashion that crisis in South Dakota in the form of an emergency disaster relief package. There is some money attached, currently, to the agriculture appropriations bill that passed at the committee level of the Senate-- it hasn't seen floor action--about $3.9 billion that would apply to 2005.…”