Kay Bailey Hutchison: “what has just cleared the Senate is a very important sense of the Senate that has unanimously passed that will help the…”

“what has just cleared the Senate is a very important sense of the Senate that has unanimously passed that will help the areas of our country that have been devastated by this drought. In fact, this is the Gramm-Hutchison-Domenici-Bingaman resolution. It says we encourage the Secretary of Agriculture to allow some of the counties--because of a regulatory snafu, a technicality--that are not now able to apply for livestock feed assistance under its old program to do so. The bulk of the counties in New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas that are affected by this will have that opportunity. But because of the technicality, they have not been able to clear all of the counties. So we are asking the Secretary of Agriculture to do this for us. It is very important to the farmers and ranchers of these States. Mr. President, this drought is hurting not only the farmers and ranchers of these States, but the consumers are going to see higher prices as well. We are in a situation now where farmers are not able to make loans because the drought has caused them either to be unable to plant or to be unable to have anything if they have planted. It also causes a great hardship on people who are raising cattle. There is no feed for the cattle because we have not been able to raise the hay. It is a terrible situation, and I just appreciate very much all of my colleagues helping us with this sense of the Senate.”