Thomas Daschle: “in July, less than a month and a half ago, the Senate voted unanimously on a resolution to declare there is a national…”

“in July, less than a month and a half ago, the Senate voted unanimously on a resolution to declare there is a national crisis in agriculture, that we needed to take immediate action to address it. Following the unanimous passage of that resolution, we passed several amendments to the agricultural appropriations bill designed to address the problem. We passed an amendment to require mandatory price reporting for livestock. We passed a second amendment offered by the distinguished Senator from South Dakota, Senator Johnson, requiring the labeling of imported meat. And we passed an amendment offered by the two hard-working Senators from North Dakota to require at least a $500 million indemnity program for victims of multiple-year disasters. Unfortunately, we failed to pass my amendment to lift the cap on marketing loans and extend their term by 6 months--which is probably the single most effective way to address the problem of low prices and lost income among grain farmers. Since we considered those amendments, the farm crisis has deepened very seriously. Over the past 3 weeks, as I visited with farmers and ranchers and rural businesspeople from all over South Dakota, they told me the same story. Many of them simply will not survive the coming months unless circumstances change.”