Sen. Leahy Wants Fast Action on Drought Relief Legislation
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy said today he hopes Congress and the Reagan Administration can forge a plan by Wednesday to provide relief for U.S. farmers in the midst of a relentless drought.
“I would hope that we would have a consensus tomorrow on some legislation,” the Vermont Democrat told a news conference. “You’ve got to give something to give some hope to some of these people.”
Leahy, who led a group of farm state senators to drought areas in the Dakotas and Montana over the weekend, said in a speech to the Senate that “a drought of this magnitude is a national crisis.”
“We saw brown and brittle and sad land,” he said of his trip. “What I saw there was not a disaster in the making. I saw a disaster.”
Weather forecasters continued their pessimistic forecasts today. Norton Strommen, the Agriculture Department’s chief meteorologist, said dry, hot weather is expected to continue through Thursday, with temperatures over 100 degrees stressing crops in much of the Great Plains.
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