An emergency farm bailout package is expected to go to a vote in the U-SSenate this afternoon. The republican version of the plan would provideabout seven-billion dollars in aid, according to Iowa Senator ChuckGrassley. He says it’d give farmers the immediate help they need.Grassley, a republican, says he is NOT confident that the House will pass afarm aid package, but he’s certain one will pass very soon in the Senate.Grassley says the emergency farm bailout is a harder sell in the House.Democrats like Senator Tom Harkin are seeking a 10-point-eight Billiondollar emergency farm relief package. Harkin says time is of the essence, and “Congress should not delay one moreday in responding to the desperate situation.”Harkin says the “situation facing American farmers today is as bad as it’sbeen since the Great Depression.”Vice President Al Gore joined Harkin and other Congressional democratleaders this morning in a Washington, D-C news conference. Gore says ifRepublicans reject the higher funding level proposed by democrats,Republicans will be, in Gore’s words, “turning their backs on Americanagriculture.”Gore says several factors have created what could be the worst financialcrisis American farmers have ever experienced.Gore says 22 million jobs are supported, directly or indirectly, by the farmeconomy.Gore accused Republicans of trying to “blow” the federal surplus on what hetermed “a risky tax scheme” while the whole U-S farm sector is on the “vergeof absolute bankruptcy.”
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