"No one piece of legislation or any one entity is going to be able to solve all of our agriculture woes out in Oklahoma and the rest of the nation," Lucas said. "I consider the passage of this bill one in a series of steps to address the serious conditions our ag producers are facing.

"That is why this is one of the many issues I have and will continue to work on," Lucas continued. "This bill will do its job and that is to provide cash flow for producers during a critical period of time."

S. 2344 would allow farmers the option of receiving all of the Agricultural Market Transition Act (AMTA) contract payments for FY 1999 immediately after the beginning of the fiscal year (October 1) or anytime thereafter in either one lump sum or two payments. Normally, annual payments are made two times a year, in December or January and again in September. Due to the combination of the second half of FY98 AMTA payments and the $5.5 billion in payments in the bill, a total of $8.3 billion will be available, and over $100 million will be available in the Sixth District ($88.4 million provided by the FY99 payments in the bill).

"At the same time that we must move cash in the direction of our farmers, we must be able to sell our ag commodities in markets abroad, eliminate the political use of agriculture as a trade sanction tool against other nations, pass at least $500 million in indemnity payments for producers, and use the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and the Export Enhancement Program (EEP) to their fullest," Lucas said.

"I pushed for action on these issues to the U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman as recently as last Thursday during a House Ag Committee hearing," Lucas said. "This particularly rough time for farmers is not just going to go away. Next year will see the nation with a much smaller population of producers if we don't continue to take action."