[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 102 (Thursday, July 17, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H5408]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          FAIRNESS TO FARMERS

  (Mr. McINTYRE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McINTYRE. Mr. Speaker, today we will consider an issue of 
fairness to farmers who have invested for generations in their crops, 
and who for generations have fed their families, paid their bills, and 
put their kids through college when possible; farmers who, by the sweat 
of their brow on hot and humid days like today, are out there toiling 
in the sun; who suddenly might suffer a natural disaster at no fault of 
their own, as happened last year, when all eight counties in my 
district in southeastern North Carolina found that their crops were 
destroyed by hurricanes; small family farmers who should not bear the 
brunt of someone else's political agenda.
  If we take away crop insurance from our tobacco farmers, we punish 
them for making an honest living from the soil of the Earth, we punish 
them by keeping them from getting bank loans, and we punish them again 
if disaster strikes. Do not do it. Do not take away their chance to 
make an honest living and be able to provide for their families.

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