April 4, 2001 Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, while we are waiting--we had a Senator call and request time, so we will wait for that Senator. I hope to give her time. I see her entering the Chamber now. Let me go back to the point I was making earlier because I think it is critically important for our colleagues to understand. I think everybody knows that this Senator is strongly supportive of additional resources for agriculture. We have an amendment that does that in a straightforward way without taking money from trust funds, the Johnson amendment. The problem is the Grassley amendment we will vote on first, which provides less of an increase in agriculture and does it in a way that invades the trust fund of Medicare in the years 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008. I don't believe that is the way we want to fund additional resources for agriculture. That would be a serious mistake. It is very clear. If one looks at the Republican budget and the Grassley prescription drug amendment that passed yesterday, and then the Grassley agricultural amendment that is pending, and looks at the year-by-year totals, one sees they are raiding and invading the Medicare trust fund in the year 2005 by $15 billion, they are raiding the Medicare trust fund in the year 2006 by $13 billion, they are raiding the Medicare trust fund in the year 2007 by $10 billion, they are raiding the Medicare trust fund in the year 2008 by $4 billion. That is a total of $42 billion taken out of the Medicare trust fund. I don't think that is the way to fund agriculture or anything else. Colleagues should be aware of what they are voting on and what the effect would be.