[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 145 (Monday, September 18, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13705-S13707]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, AND 
               RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 1996

  The Senate continued with the consideration of the bill.
  
[[Page S 13706]]

  Mr. COCHRAN addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Mississippi.
  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I understand that we have some amendments 
that have been offered and are pending now on this agriculture 
appropriations bill which is the business before the Senate.


                           Amendment No. 2686

  One of these amendments that was set aside for debate for later today 
was one offered by the distinguished Democratic leader in behalf of 
Senators Kerrey and Kohl. That amendment would strike a provision of 
the bill that was added as a committee amendment appropriating funds 
for use as disaster assistance to supplement the benefits provided by 
catastrophic insurance to disaster victims. The reason the committee 
approved this amendment was because we have seen throughout the South 
this year some very serious damage in the cotton fields of Alabama, 
Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, Tennessee, and Arkansas as well.
  As a result of massive infestations of tobacco bud worms and beet 
army worms, and other pests in the cotton crops in these States, it has 
been hard to estimate the exact amount of damage done because 
harvesting has not occurred in many of the areas where we know the 
devastation is severe. So dollar amounts are simply estimates at this 
point. But one estimate that we saw in my State of Mississippi alone 
indicates that over 160,000 acres of cotton have been damaged at a loss 
of over $100 million.
  The reason the committee thought it was important to provide some 
additional benefits is that the catastrophic crop disaster insurance 
program is not sufficient to help farmers in this situation. And many 
of them are not going to be able to plant crops next year, and some are 
not going to be able to stay in business unless something is done to 
help them.
  We have already seen this last week a request from the Governor of 
Mississippi transmitted to Secretary of Agriculture Glickman asking for 
disaster declarations in many of these counties in our State which will 
make available emergency production loans. These loans will be at 
reduced rates of interest--I am told at about 3.75 percent interest--
and would be available as emergency loan benefits, if the damage 
assessment reports justify the declaration and approval of the 
declaration by the Secretary of Agriculture.
  One difficulty that we are encountering, though, is that the early 
estimates are proving to be much less than what the damages are turning 
out to be because of these massive infestations of pests.
  It is certainly a concern to me that the Senators from Nebraska and 
Wisconsin are urging the Senate to overturn this provision in our bill. 
We had hoped that the Senate and the House also would respond to this 
crisis situation and be generous--as generous as the budget permits and 
as generous as our rules permit--to provide some additional assistance 
to these disaster victims.
  I am urging the Senate to approve the committee amendment that 
provides this crop disaster assistance money. The Senate should also 
know that I have introduced separate legislation to authorize the 
Secretary, if he deems that additional disaster assistance is 
justified, to ask for additional appropriations.
  That legislation has been introduced here in the Senate. It has been 
introduced in the House in the companion bill which is sponsored by 
Congressman Roger Wicker and Congressman Bennie Thompson of 
Mississippi. Our entire delegation was invited to a meeting at the 
offices of the Mississippi Farm Bureau federation in August to hear 
firsthand the reports of cotton producers and those who were familiar 
with the situation--immunologists, an economist from the Mississippi 
Extension Service at Mississippi State University who was familiar with 
the facts. And, after hearing all of the information, it became very 
clear to me that we needed to respond both here in Washington and at 
every level of government to try to help overcome the effects of this 
serious disaster.
  It is one of those situations where it appeared that we were going to 
have a very good and productive cotton crop throughout the country this 
year. But all of a sudden, because of the excessive hot weather, hotter 
than usual, dryer than usual, and an enormous infestation of these 
insects and pests that almost overnight the complexion of the cotton 
crop this year was changed. Producers began trying to find out what 
kinds of control measures could be effective to deal with this problem. 
Some of them spent huge amounts on chemical applications that they were 
told by experts could help deal with this disaster only to find out 
that the money was really wasted. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have 
been spent by many farmers in our State to try to deal with and control 
these pests. And much of that money has been wasted.
  There are many cotton fields in our State which will not even have a 
cotton picker put in the fields. They will not even try to harvest the 
cotton because it is just not there to pick. So total losses in many of 
our counties have been sustained.
  I am going to ask, Mr. President, to put in the Record an estimate 
that has been compiled from various sources, including the Mississippi 
Department of Agriculture, the Texas Extension Service, the Alabama 
Extension Service, and the National Cotton Council. The States of 
Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama are 
covered in this report.
  I ask unanimous consent, Mr. President, that this estimate of cotton 
losses due to the tobacco bud worm be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                COTTON LOSSES DUE TO THE TOBACCO BUDWORM                
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                           Acres--Abandoned    Loss in  
                  State                       and reduced    millions of
                                                 yield         dollars  
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mississippi..............................         160,000            100
Texas (in lower Rio Grand and southern                                  
 Rolling Plains..........................         500,000        200-400
Alabama..................................         400,000            155
Tennessee................................         150,000          50-75
Arkansas.................................         100,000             20
Georgia..................................         300,000             75
North Carolina...........................                     Negligible
South Carolina...........................                    Negligible 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sources: Mississippi: MS Department of Agriculture; Texas: Texas        
  Extension Service; Alabama: Auburn Extension Service; Tennessee:      
  National Cotton Council; Arkansas: National Cotton Council; North     
  Carolina: National Cotton Council; South Carolina: National Cotton    
  Council; and Georgia: National Cotton Council.                        
                                                                        

  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, the estimates not only identify the 
acreage that has been abandoned and which will have reduced yields due 
to this infestation, but also the translation in losses in terms of 
millions of dollars in my State of Mississippi. It is a $100 million 
estimate. But just this week, when I was home in Mississippi this 
weekend, the newspaper carried a story with new crop loss estimates 
that have been compiled from throughout the South. It shows that even 
higher estimates than had earlier been expected are now justified on 
the basis of the losses that are occurring.
  We have on our hands, Mr. President, one of the worst disasters in 
the cotton industry that anyone can remember. Our committee decided 
that it would be important to make available some additional funds 
which the Secretary of Agriculture could use to supplement the benefits 
of the Catastrophic Crop Insurance Program.
  The Catastrophic Crop Insurance Program is a new program. Farmers 
were told, when this program was approved, that it would be a 
substitute for the usual disaster assistance benefits that have 
occasionally been made available when disasters struck the agriculture 
sector, and that the amounts of the benefits would be about the same 
that they would normally get; to qualify for the catastrophic crop 
insurance, you would be charged $50, and that would be a processing 
fee.
  I remember when I first heard about it, I said to the Department of 
Agriculture people who were briefing us, ``That's too good to be true--
$50. You buy this insurance and it provides the same benefits that the 
Federal Government has been making available as disaster benefits on an 
ad hoc basis when they thought it was justified.'' I was assured that 
is what the promise was.
  What has happened, as we get down to the real details and we find out 
what the benefits are of this so-called Catastrophic Crop Insurance 
Program, we are finding out it does not provide the same coverage that 
historic disaster assistance programs have provided.
  Previous disaster programs traditionally provided coverage at 60 
percent of 

[[Page S 13707]]
historic yields at 65 percent of the market price. This new 
catastrophic coverage is 50 percent of historic yield at 60 percent of 
the market price.
  That may not sound like a great deal of difference, but it is. It is 
a substantially different program that is now being made available to 
disaster victims.
  I know that one reason for the change and one reason for the adoption 
of the new Crop Insurance Program was to provide a predictable level of 
benefit when an agriculture disaster struck, and if farmers were not 
satisfied that that was enough, they would be encouraged thereby to buy 
additional coverage. They would buy up to another level of protection 
on their own. But a lot of farmers have not done that, for varying 
reasons. Some misunderstood the benefit package that catastrophic 
insurance provided; some were, frankly, convinced that the additional 
insurance was too expensive for what they would probably get from it as 
benefits; and there may have been other reasons. There has always been 
a question about how the yields are calculated and whether the yields 
were too high or too low, whether they were individual yields or 
countywide basis yields. There have been a lot of problems with crop 
insurance, and everybody knows that.
  I raise this issue now, and I know it will be debated later by those 
who are trying to strike this money from the bill, so Senators will be 
on notice that we are probably going to have to vote on this amendment. 
Unlike other disasters that have been occasioned by flood or bad 
weather, this is a disaster that actually resulted in farmers going out 
and spending money to try to prevent it on their own, trying to apply 
what they hoped would be new chemicals that were promised to work and 
did not or did not work well enough to justify the enormous expenses 
that farmers went to to protect themselves.
  Here they were. It was just weeks away from these bolls ripening and 
producing the cotton for harvest when they noticed that these bolls 
were being infested with bud worms and army worms and other pests.
  One part of the story is good news, and that is that in many parts of 
our State, the delta region particularly, the cotton had gotten to the 
stage of development where it was not affected by the worms, and so we 
are not talking about every area of our State being equally devastated 
by this problem. But we do have many areas of our State where there are 
total losses and many areas where the yields are not nearly what they 
were expected to be. It is disheartening and it truly is a disaster of 
enormous proportions. So I hope the Senators who are resisting this 
effort to provide additional assistance will reconsider.
  The amount of money in the bill for this purpose is about $40 
million, and Senator Kerrey's amendment will strike that money. We hope 
that the Senate will vote against it.
  I am going to ask unanimous consent, Mr. President, to put in the 
Record some additional supporting documentation on this, specifically 
an article that I talked about that was in the paper this weekend which 
more clearly describes the seriousness of the situation and the 
enormous losses that are occurring in Mississippi and elsewhere as a 
result of this cotton crop disaster.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

               [From the Clarion-Ledger, Sept. 17, 1995]

                Growers Pick Tough Year for More Cotton

       Starkville.--Cotton yields will not be what many growers 
     dreamed of when they increased Mississippi's crop by 100,000 
     acres to take advantage of stronger prices.
       Higher than normal insect pressure and excessive heat have 
     taken their toll.
       ``Preliminary yields do not look good,'' said Will McCarty, 
     extension cotton specialist at Mississippi State University.
       The Sept. 1 crop report from the U.S. Department of 
     Agriculture brought bleak news on the expectations for 
     Mississippi's crop.
       ``The September report estimates 480,000 fewer bales of 
     cotton for Mississippi than the August report predicted,'' 
     McCarty said. ``The pounds per acre expectation dropped 158 
     pounds. I can't remember the crop reporting service ever 
     dropping us that much in one month.''
       The cotton specialist said the news could get worse as the 
     season finishes.
       ``There is no doubt that the severe, continuous heat in 
     July, August and early September has taken a heavy toll on 
     the crop,'' McCarty said.
       Blake Layton, extension entomologist at MSU, said the state 
     had faced the risk of catastrophic tobacco budworm numbers 
     for several years because of high levels of insecticide 
     resistance.
       ``The extremely high numbers in 1995 turned that risk into 
     reality,'' Layton said. ``This risk will exist again next 
     year because we still will have problems with insecticide 
     resistance. Severe winter temperatures will help reduce the 
     danger.''
       The entomologist said because of the cyclic nature of these 
     insects next year hopefully will be less severe.
       ``We seldom have two back-to-back years of insect 
     populations at these levels of a pest like this,'' he said.
       Layton said natural predators and parasites increase with 
     high numbers of an insect and help knock the numbers back 
     down. He said the damage to the 1995 crop is done. Growers 
     are no longer applying insecticides as the tobacco budworms 
     prepare to overwinter in the ground.
       In Forest County, where cotton is a new crop, growers are 
     anxious to harvest and see the bottom line.
       ``We're one of the few counties that haven't had tobacco 
     budworm problems, but we've had everything else--bollworms, 
     beet armyworms, yellow-striped armyworms and even loopers,'' 
     said Lee Taylor, Forest County agricultural agent. ``Last 
     fall's eradication efforts helped keep boll weevils from 
     becoming a factor this year.''
       Taylor said growers turned to cotton as marketing of 
     soybeans and corn became less attractive. He said 1995 has 
     been a good year for cotton.
       Otis Davis, Madison County agent, said growers began 
     harvesting cotton slightly earlier because of the dry 
     conditions. The drought is causing lighter seeds and smaller 
     bolls.
       ``Insects were a tremendous expense to growers throughout 
     Madison County,'' Davis said. ``Cotton prices probably will 
     entice growers to return to cotton again next year.''
       Growers throughout the southeast continue to await word on 
     disaster assistance from the federal and state governments as 
     a result of tobacco budworm damage.

  Mr. INHOFE addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.
  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be allowed 
to address the Senate as if in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________