[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 27 (Friday, February 10, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H1599]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            LET FARMERS FARM

  (Mr. FUNDERBURK asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. FUNDERBURK. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join with my colleague 
from Indiana, Mr. Hostettler, the American Farm Bureau, the American 
soybean Association, and the National Pork Producers Council, in 
supporting the Agricultural Lands Protection Act.
  Mr. Speaker, the Second District of North Carolina is the second 
largest producer of tobacco in America. We also have hundreds of 
soybean, peanut, and livestock farms. Farmers are the backbone of my 
district. Unfortunately, Washington treats these hard-working Americans 
like criminals. Its agents invade their land. Federal bureaucrats tell 
them what they can and can't do on their own farms. Instead of spending 
their time in the fields and barns, our farmers are now spending their 
days filling our forms and applying for permits.
  Mr. Speaker, the madness has to stop. The Agricultural Lands 
Protection Act is a first step in restoring some sanity to agricultural 
policy. It says that the Federal Government will no longer classify 
land historically used for farming and ranching as wetlands. No longer 
will farmers have to bend to the whim of some hard core 
environmentalist at the Department of Agriculture or the Corps of 
Engineers. This bill restores fundamental property rights to the men 
and women who put food on our table. It's long past time that this 
House put the interests of the farmer above bureaucrats and academics, 
lets pass the Agricultural Lands Protection Act.


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