Tom Harkin

Mr. HARKIN

Mr. HARKIN. Reserving the right to object, Senator McCain wants an exemption from the cloture in case cloture is invoked?

Mr. HARKIN. I think it is becoming clear what is going on.

Mr. HARKIN. Is there any time limit the Senator will agree on?

Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, how long have we debated the Johnson amendment to this point? I ask that there be one half-hour remaining on the Johnson amendment divided evenly.

Mr. HARKIN. Is there a time limit on the Johnson amendment?

Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, parliamentary inquiry. Are we on the Johnson amendment now?

Mr. HARKIN. Yes.

Mr. HARKIN. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I believe Senator Smith has an amendment. Maybe we could take up his amendment.

Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I join my colleagues. I am a cosponsor of this amendment. I join my colleagues from Wisconsin and Iowa in supporting this amendment. This was part of the competition title we had offered in committee, which was not accepted in committee in its totality. The only part that was accepted was the country of origin labeling. So this is a part of the competition title. There will be another amendment by Senator Johnson, also, that will fill in the picture on competition. This is a good amendment. In a nutshell, I think the Senator from Indiana kind of put his finger on it. Right now, more and more contracts between growers and producers have an arbitration clause in them. The grower is basically forced to accept that. Well, we had a recent case--to show how onerous this is--in Mississippi where a poultry grower, in order to file for arbitration, had to plunk down $11,000; that was his cost of the arbitration side. To take that case to civil court would cost him $150 to $250. If the amount in contest or in question is $10,000, it makes no sense for the producer to pay $11,000 to recover $10,000, so you just lose it. The amendment really gives the grower the absolute right to choose. He can go to arbitration or to civil court, notwithstanding what the contract may say, and it gives that grower the right to do that. In a way, it levels the field a little between the grower and the retailer, or the processor, for example. With that, I urge adoption of the amendment. I hope all time has expired.

Mr. HARKIN. Madam President, how much time is remaining?

Mr. HARKIN. Again, another vagueness in this bill. For example, an agricultural producer could be Scottie Pippin who owns a horse farm of maybe 120 acres or 100 acres and he is an agricultural producer. So, again, very vague. I yield the floor.

Mr. HARKIN

Mr. HARKIN. I object.

Mr. HARKIN. Reserving the right to object.

Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I understand now under a previous unanimous consent agreement we will proceed to a Smith of New Hampshire amendment, then a Wyden-Brownback amendment, a Wellstone amendment, and a McCain amendment that have all been agreed to in that order; is that correct?

Mr. HARKIN. So there will be votes tonight, if, again, Senators offer amendments and we debate them? We can have votes tonight on further amendments to the farm bill?

Mr. HARKIN. It is a good thing this is the Defense authorization conference report or I would object. I do not intend to permit anything else to interrupt this farm bill until we finish it. It is defense. It is important for our country, so I will not object. I just want to put everyone on notice, that is it. Once we get back on the farm bill, we will be on it. I will object to going off this farm bill for anything else other than the defense of this country. I just want to make it clear. Secondly, I want to ask my leader about tonight. We are going to have these three votes. We have had some amendments. We have some amendments ready to go tonight. I want to know if it is the intention to have the Senate stay in session tonight and to have votes, to debate amendments and have votes tonight to move this farm bill forward. I would just like to know if that is what we are going to do.

Mr. HARKIN. I inquire if we can get time agreements so we can move this along. I ask the Senator from New Hampshire and whoever else is interested in the amendment if he would be interested in entering into a time agreement.

Mr. HARKIN. So I guess what I read into that, if the Senator will yield, is that it is the Senator's intention not to have any votes tonight?

Mr. HARKIN

Mr. HARKIN. We would like to debate it. I ask if anyone knows where Senator McCain is; we would like to debate the amendment. He is not here, so we cannot debate the amendment. What I would like to do--I wonder if I can work with the ranking member to see if we can make some progress on this bill tonight. I would like to ask consent to withdraw the McCain amendment, with the understanding that tomorrow morning when we come in, the McCain amendment will be put in order on the substitute after we debate the Wellstone amendment and lay it aside tomorrow. We will not dispose of it until we come back next week. I am saying that we take the McCain amendment off tonight so we can deal with other things, with the understanding or with the agreement, with the consent that tomorrow morning the first thing we will turn to is the Wellstone amendment, as I understand; when the debate is finished on the Wellstone amendment, Senator McCain be recognized to offer his amendment on the substitute, and it can debated.

Mr. HARKIN. Maybe I should inquire of the President, what is the order right now?

Mr. HARKIN. Further inquiry, Madam President. Is there a consent agreement now in order which lines up some other amendments?

Mr. HARKIN. There is not. May I further inquire, where is the Smith amendment and the Torricelli second-degree amendment thereto in the order of things right now?

Mr. HARKIN. If they are pending to the substitute, then the Wellstone amendment will be to the substitute, and so we will have to lay aside the Smith and Torricelli amendments tomorrow morning in order to go to Wellstone.

Mr. HARKIN

Mr. HARKIN. Will the Senator yield? I want to compliment him and the Arizona Diamondbacks. What a great series, one of the best World Series I have ever watched, being a baseball nut like I am. I think what the Diamondbacks showed is not to ever count anyone out and never give up. I think the thing that came through with that team was people did not think they would be up for it and counted them out in the beginning. This team never gave up, and I think, as the Senator from Arizona said, at this time in our national life we needed to be reminded to never give up.