[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 93 (Friday, June 27, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6721-S6722]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            INCOME AVERAGING

  Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, I will not take long. There are some folks 
I would like to extend my appreciation to. In the Senate today, when we 
passed the income averaging for our farmers and ranchers in Montana, we 
fulfilled a commitment that we made to those farmers and ranchers when 
we passed Freedom to Farm. We are in a transition; subsidies are going 
away, and now we are providing a vehicle, a tool with which we can 
maybe ride out the good years and prepare for the bad years without too 
much trouble.
  I express my appreciation to the chairman and the ranking member of 
the Finance Committee for their help, also the efforts made by Senator 
Roberts of Kansas and Senator Bumpers of Arkansas, Senator Conrad of 
North Dakota and Senator Bond of Missouri and Senator Hagel of Nebraska 
and my friend and colleague, Senator Baucus from Montana.
  Without help from those Senators on this issue, I am afraid we would 
not have been as successful as we were in justifying and trying to pass 
income averaging. It is very important. Who is it important to? It is 
important to the young farmers and ranchers just starting. We know they 
will have good years and we know they will have bad years right behind 
them due to the elements of Mother Nature, to prices of commodities 
raised on our farms and ranches. This allows a way to hang on and 
spread that income out and survive in agriculture. After all, we 
produce the best food, the most of it, the cheapest of any country in 
the world. So this is a winner for all of America, not just American 
agriculture.
  I thank you and I yield the floor.
  Mr. DODD addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair recognizes the Senator from 
Connecticut.

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