Kent Conrad

Mr. CONRAD

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I personally think that would be a mistake. My experience here has been when we have so many votes occurring that if there is not some explanation, people literally may not know what they are voting on. If we want to reduce it to 30 seconds, I think you need at least a moment for people to have it brought to their attention what the vote pertains to. I urge us to have at least a limited amount of time for those who are for and against to have some explanation before the vote.

Mr. CONRAD. I absolutely agree with the Senator on the need to compress the time. As the Senator knows, we have been working diligently to try to organize this in a way that reduces the time. I would accept going to 30 seconds on a side.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, if we might have a moment to review for our colleagues where we stand, I think it is important to do so at this moment. I alert our colleagues that we have nine more amendments in this queue. We have 33 additional amendments noticed. That is 42 total. We are doing just over four amendments an hour. If we continue on this course, we are going to be here until 2 or 2:30 this morning. There are a number of colleagues who have multiple amendments still noticed. I am asking colleagues to please notify leadership, please notify the whip, of what amendments you can wait on until another vehicle and another time. At this point, I plead with colleagues. Let us not have a situation in which we are here until 3 o'clock this morning. This is our opportunity now during these votes for Members to notify which amendments they are willing to hold off on. Please do that.

Mr. CONRAD

Mr. CONRAD. I will not yield. That sets a precedent that is a profound mistake for agriculture and we will rue the day when we are in the midst of negotiations that we cut the heart out of our negotiators' ability to level the playing field for our producers. That is a mistake. I reserve the remainder of my time. Amendment No. 239

Mr. CONRAD. The short answer is I do not. Under the agreement that has been reached, all time has been allocated among these various amendments, so there is no time remaining to allocate.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I do have 5 minutes, I have been informed, that I can allocate. Let me give that 5 minutes that I have available.

Mr. CONRAD. I thank my colleague. Mr. President, the amendment before the Senate strikes the budget reconciliation instructions to the Senate Committee on Agriculture. The amendment deletes the requirement that the Senate Agriculture Committee report legislation that reduces outlays by $2.8 billion. It does not change the other budgetary assumptions for agriculture contained in the resolution. The fact is, agriculture has already contributed substantially to deficit reduction. We are far below in funding what the farm bill called for. We are $16 billion below what the farm bill anticipated. If the national media ever reported something incorrectly, they reported incorrectly the effect of the last farm bill on agriculture spending. You would have thought, reading the national press, that agriculture got an enormous increase, a 60-percent increase. Wrong. Agriculture did not get an increase, agriculture got less money. What they left out were the disaster bills we had been reporting and passing year after year. Here is the pattern of farm program spending, and this shows the spending went down. It did not go up. The national media just got it wrong. This is in the midst of a circumstance in which our major competitors are providing far more funding to their producers than we are providing to ours. Our major competitors are the Europeans. Here is what they are doing. They are providing $277 an acre of support each and every year for their producers. The comparable amount in the United States is $48. So they are outgunning us over 5 to 1. It is not just in domestic support. It is also in international subsidies, subsidies for export. Here is the European Union's part of world agricultural subsidies. They account for 87 percent of world agricultural export subsidies. This is the U.S. share--1 percent. They are outgunning us 87 to 1. Right now we are entering negotiations with the WTO to try to level the playing field. Let me remind my colleagues, this is what Europe is doing for their farmers. These are not Kent Conrad's numbers, these are the international scorekeepers' numbers, OECD: Europe, $277 an acre per year per producer; the United States, $48. On export subsidy, Europe accounts for 87 percent of all the world's agricultural export subsidy; the United States is 1 percent. They are outgunning us 87 to 1. We are just entering negotiations to try to level the playing field. Why would we ever unilaterally disarm in the midst of a trade dispute? We would never do that in a military confrontation. Why would we do it in a trade confrontation? Unilaterally cutting in the midst of the farm bill, in the midst of international negotiations, is a profound mistake. If anybody doubts what is happening, Europe has gone from being the biggest importing region in the world to the biggest exporting region, and they are now equivalent to us in world market share. Keep up with this strategy and America is going to become a second-class agricultural power. This year, USDA forecasts we are going to import more agricultural production than we will export. That is a stunning turnaround for the United States. We should not continue down that path. I thank the Chair. I thank my colleague and yield back my time.

Mr. CONRAD

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, first of all, I thank the Senator from Florida for helping accept these modifications. I thank the leaders on both sides, Senator Frist and Senator Reid, for a determined effort in the last few hours to make certain this bill goes to the House in time. I think all of us have in our mind's eye the face of that lovely young woman. It is very much in my mind, the smile of that young woman. Her parents want to give her a chance. I think of my own daughter. We ought to give her a chance. And this is our opportunity to do it. I hope very much the House will give this a chance. I also thank my colleague from Pennsylvania, Senator Santorum, who first brought this to my attention this afternoon. This is the right thing to do, colleagues. Let's pass this.

Mr. CONRAD

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I thank my staff very much for an extraordinary effort. Thank you very much.

Mr. CONRAD. We will not end until the leader has worked things out, but the chairman was concluding his statement.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, very briefly, I thank Senator Gregg for the tone he set not only in committee, but on the floor. I thank his staff for their professionalism and cooperation. We have gotten to know them and have worked closely with them and have enjoyed the experience. I thank Members of the Senate who worked cooperatively. Just hours ago, we could have been faced with being here until 3 o'clock in the morning. Senators on both sides of the aisle really cooperated to allow us to complete business at this hour. With all of that said, I urge Members to oppose this budget resolution. As I read it, this budget would increase the deficit by over $200 billion over and above what would happen if we just put this entire Government on autopilot. In addition, as I read this budget, it increases the debt each and every year by over $600 billion. Mr. President, this is at a time when we already have record deficits and soaring debt and are increasingly vulnerable to the decisions of foreign central banks, as we have increased our borrowing from them by nearly 100 percent in just 3 years. Finally, I don't think this budget has the right priorities for America. This has a dramatic cut in the COPS program, virtually eliminating it. It has cuts in things like firefighters grants and, at the same time, substantial tax cuts for the very wealthiest among us, a tax cut of more than $35,000 for millionaires in 2006 alone. That is at a time when we are reducing funding for a whole series of national priorities, including veterans and education beyond what was authorized. Again, let me conclude by thanking colleagues on both sides for the professionalism with which this debate has been conducted. I yield the floor.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, we now have the DeWine amendment before us.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I think the Record should show that Senator Santorum, through no fault of his own, missed the last vote. And I regret that we cannot, through unanimous consent, correct that.

Mr. CONRAD. This is another good example of a Senator cooperating, I might add. We got one amendment worked out, he dropped another amendment. This is a very good way to proceed. I ask the Chair if we could turn our attention to Senator Pryor.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I want to say for the information of Senators that we are now very close. We have six or seven amendments left to do. We are working hard to try to clear some of them. Some of them no doubt will still require votes. We ask for our colleagues' patience. We have, I think, made enormous progress. You will remember when we started this, we were headed for being here until 3 o'clock in the morning. Very substantial progress has been made because of the cooperation of Members on both sides. If we can be patient a few more minutes, we can clear additional amendments and then be prepared to push to the end. Amendment No. 254, As Modified

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I ask that we now turn our attention to the Pryor LIHEAP amendment and that we recognize Senator Pryor for 30 seconds to present that amendment.

Mr. CONRAD. So, for the information of our colleagues, if they will continue to work with us we can reach conclusion at a reasonable time. We have made enormous progress in the last hour, I say to my colleagues. Again, we are at about 10 amendments left. We have a number that we can work out. With that, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. CONRAD. Can I say for the information of my colleagues, we are getting close now. We are under 10 amendments to go. We are trying to work things out. We have a number of other amendments. I see the chairman is back now. I think there are three more amendments that we could take on a unanimous consent basis, is that not correct?

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, can I just say for the information of my colleagues--could I have order?

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I ask that we recognize Senator Dayton for the purpose of offering an amendment and that Senator Dayton have 1 minute to describe his amendment.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, on our side, we want to signal strong support for this amendment, and we can voice vote the amendment.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I ask that we consider the Baucus amendment that is pending. Senator Baucus can give us 30 seconds on his amendment and then perhaps we could get it accepted.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.