Thomas Daschle: “We believe that our proposal is also fiscally responsible. We link price relief to the market price, and we certainly…”

“We believe that our proposal is also fiscally responsible. We link price relief to the market price, and we certainly recognize that it addresses the real problems that we are facing across the board in agriculture. I think our colleagues on the other side have failed to address the dual nature of the crisis --that is, loss of crops and loss of income. I believe they are failing to recognize the severity of the crisis. As I noted earlier, Mr. President, our Secretaries of Agriculture--the Association of State Departments of Agriculture--held an emergency conference last week to propose to us what they believe ought to be done. Frankly, they said both of our relief packages were inadequate. They said that even $7 billion was inadequate, and even all the policy changes we are recommending did not do what they felt was needed to address the level of need they see today. So if $7 billion and all of the policy changes we have recommended doesn't even cut it, $3.5 billion doesn't cut it, either. Over 150 Members of the House voted to send this bill back to conference. I hope that a large number of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle will agree to send it back as well. We simply can't leave this Congress without providing essential disaster relief. We must not lose this opportunity.”