WASHINGTON -- United States Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., today suspended her plan to hold the Senate floor for as many as 30 hours this weekend following an agreement with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to act this year on aid for disaster-impacted farmers nationwide. The Farm Relief Act of 2008, introduced by Sen. Landrieu today, provides $1.12 billion in assistance to farmers impacted by hurricanes Gustav and Ike, Tropical Storm Fay, the Midwest floods, and recent tornadoes, wildfires and draughts.

"Eight weeks ago, the farmers throughout the South were celebrating what a beautiful crop they may have," Sen. Landrieu said. "But thousands and thousands of acres are now absolutely unharvestable because of these rains. And this Congress, Democrats and Republicans, are about ready to leave having done nothing. Nothing. Not even a lifeline. Not even a message to say, 'we hear you.'

"Everyone is right now downstairs in a room talking about how we can build a levee around Wall Street. I understand that something has to be done about the financial situation. But I can tell you that while everybody's been meeting for weeks about building a levee around Wall Street, the levees have already broken at home. Not just in Louisiana, but in Texas and Arkansas and Missouri and Kansas and throughout the heartland."

As part of the agreement, negotiated on the floor this morning, Sen. Landrieu permitted a final vote on H.R. 2638, the Continuing Resolution, to take place this afternoon. A full 30 hours of debate would have required Senators to return to the Capitol Sunday afternoon instead.

The agreement set aside one hour of debate prior to the vote for Sen. Landrieu and other Senators to discuss the impact the hurricanes and other disasters have had on the nation's agricultural communities. The 2008 Farm Bill created an agricultural disaster relief program called SURE, but regulations have not been set yet for its administration, and farmers are unable to apply for assistance until next year at the earliest. Sen. Landrieu's legislation today would make funding available to farmers immediately for damage to crops including sugar, rice, cotton, wheat, corn, sugar beets, sweet potatoes and others.

Speaking on the floor today, Sen. Landrieu asked: "How could this Congress pass four major appropriations bills and fail to recognize that the program we established in good intentions and with goodwill is not even in existence yet to help these farmers?"

"What Senator Landrieu is asking for here is exactly what needs to be done -- and that is a bridge program to deal with the current emergency until the disaster program that's part of the Farm Bill is in effect," said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., who authored the relief program in the original Farm Bill and today cosponsored the Landrieu legislation.

"I want to thank Senator Landrieu for her leadership," Sen. Conrad continued. "She has been persistent. She has gone from colleague to colleague. She's talked to the House, the Senate, trying to persuade them that these farm families should not be abandoned at their time of need."

Sen. Landrieu's bill is also cosponsored by Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., Mark Pryor, D-Ark., Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Thad Cochran, R-Miss.

Congressman Don Cazayoux, D-La., is expected to introduce companion legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives with Reps. Rodney Alexander, R-La., and Charlie Melancon, D-La.

"Our farmers were devastated by the recent hurricanes and need our help," Rep. Cazayoux said. "While the recent Farm Bill was intended to give disaster assistance, it isn't going be there when our farmers need it - which is now. I have worked with Senator Landrieu and Commissioner Strain and am pleased to support our farmers by filing legislation that will provide immediate disaster assistance. Waiting for the Farm Bill regulations is not an option and I am committed to passing this legislation so that our farmers get the help they need now."

"I just want to take this time to say thanks to my good friend and my good neighbor, Senator Landrieu," Sen. Lincoln said today in a speech on the Senate floor. "I'm proud to be with her to fight on behalf of America's growers.

"When people look around and realize that it is not just stock markets, it is not just home mortgages -- but it is actually the ability to be able to feed your family -- then they will figure out that it is absolutely appropriate that we stand here today and ask our government to help us move forward with the kind of environment that our growers need to be able to put seed in the ground, to be able to produce, and to be able to be competitive in a global marketplace so we can continue to allow them to produce that unbelievably safe and abundant food and fiber for this nation and for the entire world."

"I want to commend [Senator Landrieu] for the strong argument she has made, the attention that she has brought to the issue of agriculture disaster in both her state and Texas, in particular," said Sen. Cochran in his floor remarks. "But this also affects my state, Mississippi. And listening to her a little while ago from my office over television made me think: 'We do need to address this issue and why not put language in this bill that would help ensure that that consideration was given?' I think [Senator Landrieu has] made some excellent points and they need to be acknowledged by those in charge of our programs so that ways can be found to help these farmers."

"What an irony it would be if the Congress of the United States moved in the next few days to react to a fiscal crisis in the country but left part of the country out," Sen. Conrad added. "If the Congress said to those farm families in Arkansas and Louisiana and Texas and, yes, in Mississippi: 'Tough luck for you. We've got $700 billion for other parts of the country, but we don't have $1 billion for you.'"

Earlier this month, Sen. Landrieu visited farms throughout Louisiana and witnessed firsthand the devastation of hurricanes Gustav and Ike and Tropical Storm Fay, now estimated at nearly $700 million in lost revenue. Cotton farmers are the hardest hit, with a 58 percent drop in revenue.

When Sen. Landrieu returned to Washington, she held a joint hearing of her Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Disaster Recovery Subcommittee and the Senate Agriculture Committee, chaired by Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, to shed further light on this agricultural disaster. At the hearing, Louisiana Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain testified that Louisiana's farming economy is "on the verge of collapse."

Louisiana State Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Francis Thompson and Louisiana State University economist Bill Richardson were also key voices in informing Congress of the storms' devastating impact.

"The water came into these fields, and the farmers cannot harvest their crops. They can't get into the fields to try and save what is left," Sen. Landrieu said today. "You can grow rice in water, but it can't grow in salt water. And so the salt water and the tidal surge came in, ruining the rice crop and then the cotton crop, which looked so beautiful a couple of weeks ago."