[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 14 (Thursday, February 1, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H1206]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     HOUSE FAILS TO PASS FARM BILL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Chambliss] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CHAMBLISS. Mr. Speaker, I would certainly commend the gentlewoman 
from California for her kind words about Congressman Mfume. Members on 
both sides of the aisle are going to miss him. He spoke with a lot of 
emotion and from his heart and spoke with a lot of reason in a House 
that does not always exercise reasonableness, and he will be missed.
  I have with me tonight my colleague and agriculture friend from Iowa, 
Tom Latham. We come here tonight out of a sense of terrible frustration 
for what is going on in the agriculture business in this House.
  We made an attempt today to bring the 1995, and here we are in 1996, 
farm bill to the floor for a vote. The Committee on Agriculture has 
worked very diligently and very hard over the last 13 months trying to 
formulate and change the agricultural policy in this country to ensure 
that we have strong and viable agricultural programs moving into the 
21st century. We met all day on Tuesday to discuss what is now the new 
form of the farm bill that is the second bill that has been passed by 
that committee, the first one having been a part of the Balanced Budget 
Act of 1995 that unfortunately was vetoed by President Clinton. Had 
that bill not been vetoed, our farmers would have had back in December 
the ability to plan and determine what they were going to be able to do 
with their farm operation for 1996. But that did not happen. So we came 
back to the table on Tuesday of this week. We again brought forth the 
bill that was contained in the Balanced Budget Act of 1995, debated it 
thoroughly in the Committee on Agriculture on Tuesday and were in great 
hopes that it would come to the floor today. But, unfortunately, our 
friends on the other side of the aisle would not agree with us to bring 
this bill up today.
  Tom, I know you share that same frustration and I know your folks in 
Iowa are as upset as I am and you are and as my farmers in Georgia are.
  Mr. LATHAM. You are exactly right. I appreciate the chance to visit 
with you about it.
  I do not know how to explain to my farmers in Iowa who last year were 
devastated by floods in southern Iowa going down into northeast 
Missouri, what to tell those people, why a group of people, led by 
the leadership on the minority side, would stop a farm bill that would 
finally give them some hope, give them some income next year. Just 
continuing what we have now would give them no income next year. These 
people are going to be asked to pay back their deficiency payments.

  If you will remember just last week, we tried to put the farm bill on 
the continuing resolution and once again, because of the leadership of 
the minority party, they threatened a filibuster on the continuing 
resolution and thereby stopped the farm bill at that time.
  I am very discouraged at this point, because even though we were 
promised cooperation so that we could advance a farm bill, it was not 
brought forth from the minority.
  We will continue to work very hard and during the next few weeks to 
make sure that we do get an agreement, that we get a farm bill. It is 
needed very much for people who are in desperate straits at this time.
  Mr. CHAMBLISS. We are leaving here today. We voted on and passed a 
bill to adjourn this House until the 26th day of February. So we know 
it is going to be then. You are going to have the same problem in going 
home to your farmers and saying, ``Folks, you know, we're not even 
going to be able to take this bill up until the 26th of February,'' and 
it really will not make any difference whether we took it up in advance 
of that or not because the Senate is out until the 26th of February, 
they have already said that, and we are sort of going to be in limbo 
until then.
  I am very frustrated, I am very upset about this, and I certainly 
hope that during these next 3 weeks as we are out of this House, that 
all Members on both sides of the aisle are going to take the 
opportunity to sit back and reflect on the fact that 2 percent of the 
population of this country feed 100 percent of the population of this 
country, as well as many, many other hundreds of thousands and millions 
of folks all across this world, because we grow not only the finest 
quality and most abundant agricultural products in the world but the 
cheapest agricultural products in the world.

                              {time}  2100

  Our farmers need good, solid farm programs to ensure that they are 
able to get some sort of return on their investment to keep them going. 
That has been our goal in this farm bill from January 4, 1995, when we 
started last year. It is still our goal.
  Mr. LATHAM. You are exactly right, and this farm bill is real reform, 
a way of getting our farmers to respond to the market rather than the 
government control, the centralized control that we have had in the 
past, and looking at the floor here, I mean, there are three people on 
the floor here this evening. If it had not been for what happened this 
evening because of the minority's technical procedural glitch they put 
in, we could be having this farm bill debate right now and passing the 
farm bill for the people at home.
  Mr. CHAMBLISS. I thank the gentleman for joining me tonight. I know 
you have the same deep regret that I do that we do not right now have a 
farm bill in place that we could have had tonight. We will continue to 
work over the next 3 weeks and hopefully on February 26 we will come 
back in the frame of mind to get it done and get it done soon.

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