[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 85 (Thursday, June 25, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H5393-H5394]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              A GOOD WEEK FOR THE PEOPLE OF NORTH CAROLINA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Pease). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Mrs. Clayton) is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. Mr. Speaker, this has been a good week for the people 
of America and for the citizens of the First Congressional District of 
North Carolina.
  First the President signed the Agriculture Research Extension and 
Education Reauthorization. That legislation is important for 
agriculture research, as well as for restoring food stamps and the 
much-needed crop insurance for farmers. It recognizes the need for 
rural development programs, which allow the Secretary to provide funds 
for water and sewer development as well as funds for research programs, 
including those involving cotton and pfiesteria, important research 
needed for Eastern North Carolina.
  It also provides for the continuation of land grant research 
programs, including those at historical black colleges and 
universities, and education land grants for Hispanic-serving 
institutions.
  The food stamp restoration targets the most vulnerable legal 
immigrants: the elderly, disabled persons and children. It targets 
refugees, who often came to this country without nothing but the 
clothes on their backs, and veterans who fought courageously along the 
U.S. military forces in Vietnam.
  They were eligible for food stamps prior to the Welfare Reform Act of 
1996. The importance, the urgency and the fairness of the agriculture 
research bill to all growers and consumers of agricultural products is 
paramount.
  We also passed H.R. 4060, the Energy and Water Appropriations Act for 
fiscal year 1999, which includes money for the Wilmington, North 
Carolina port. That measure included $8.3 million in funding for the 
deepening and widening of the port at Wilmington, North Carolina which 
has historically served as one of the greatest sources of revenue along 
the East Coast.
  While generating over $300 million in State and local taxes, the port 
creates over 80,000 jobs in North Carolina. Along with North Carolina, 
many other landlocked States of the southeast have used the Port of 
Wilmington as a conduit to the Atlantic Ocean and to the rest of the 
world.
  Completing the Cape Fear River deepening project is indeed prudent 
spending of Federal funds, long range vision, and it does indeed allow 
for a balance of our priorities. I also applaud the passage of H.R. 
4101, the fiscal year 1999 Agriculture Appropriation Bill. The bill 
provides a total of $55.9 billion for agriculture, rural development 
and food nutrition programs.
  I am delighted that several amendments to the bill were defeated, 
including one against the peanut program, which is so important to my 
district, which was voted down by a higher margin than last year. The 
bill increases funding for farm operation loans, maintains funding for 
the WIC program, funds the Federal Crop Insurance Program, increased 
funding for agriculture inspection and holds the line on agriculture 
research, and increases funding

[[Page H5394]]

for school lunch and the school breakfast program.
  The bill also contains provisions for lifting the statute of 
limitations contained in the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, thus 
allowing black farmers who have complaints of discrimination against 
the Department of Agriculture to have a hearing either before the 
department or before the courts. Where relief is merited, it will now 
be granted even for the cases dating back to 1983. The plight of the 
black farmers in America is a plight not unlike that of other groups, 
with one very significant exception.
  The very department designed to help them has over the last several 
years indeed harmed them. There has been a 64 percent decline in black 
farmers, just over the last 15 years, from 6,996 farmers in 1978 to 
2,498 farms in 1992.
  The Department of Justice ruled earlier this year that legal and 
technical arguments should prevent these farmers from recovering for 
damages done to them, taking the position that even in cases where the 
discrimination had been proven, documented and demonstrated, recovery 
was indeed possible. However, the Reagan administration had eliminated 
the investigating unit within the USDA which would have investigated 
their complaints of discrimination.
  Yet the department continued to receive the complaints and in fact in 
its literature encouraged farmers to submit their complaints to them. 
Black farmers relied on this representation and indeed it was an empty 
process to their detriment.
  It was not until the complainants failed to get relief from USDA and 
filed lawsuits that the Department of Justice raised the statute of 
limitations as a defense. Because the department formally took the 
position, I and others call upon our colleagues in Congress to provide 
swift and effective legislative remedies. I am glad to say that our 
Congress passed that. It was a historical day.

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