[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 19 (Tuesday, March 3, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H702-H703]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   IS THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE WILLING TO LOOK INTO THE FACES OF 
                        AMERICAN FARM FAMILIES?

  (Mr. HILL asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I have a question today for the Department of 
Agriculture. Are you willing to look into the faces of American farm 
families?
  Yesterday morning in Sweetgrass, Montana, on the border between 
Canada and the United States, dozens of farmers and ranchers from both 
sides of the border gathered in protest by barricading the border to 
gain the attention of the administration.
  It is not just a protest about grain prices, even though those prices 
are below the cost of production. And it was not just a protest about 
unfair trade, even though Canada and the Canadian Grain Board is 
dumping grain into the United States. It was a protest about 
administrations in Washington and a Federal Government in Ottawa that 
have turned their back on producers.
  My question to the Secretary of Agriculture and to our trade 
representative: Will you come to Shelby, Montana and will you look into 
the faces of these farm families, and will you sit at

[[Page H703]]

their kitchen tables and look at their budgets with me? Will you listen 
to them and their ideas and their solutions so that these families can 
enjoy a piece of America's prosperity too? Mr. Secretary, will you do 
that? Will you not turn your back on them?

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