[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 105 (Thursday, July 30, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9328-S9329]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   THE PLIGHT OF THE AMERICAN FARMER

  Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, we have heard a large number of words and 
speeches on this floor, of course, in the last 2 or 3 months on the 
plight of the American farmer. Many called for a return to the policies 
of yesteryear. I am here this morning in contrast to talk about 10 
impediments or evidences of indifference on the part of this 
administration to the farmers and the agricultural communities of the 
State of Washington, the Pacific Northwest, and all of America which 
can be solved simply by the administration's willingness to care about 
those Americans who produce our food and fibers.
  So in the classic way that we give lists of 10, I will start, Mr. 
President, with number 10, the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem 
Management Program. A bloated attempt begun 4 years ago, to have lasted 
1 year would cost $5 million, which is now approaching $40 million in 4 
years, and has antagonized

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all of the private interests in the Interior Columbia Basin, all of the 
Members of Congress who represent any part of that basin, but the 
continuance of which is demanded by the President as the price of 
signing an appropriations bill for the Department of Interior.
  I held a field hearing on this subject in Spokane, WA, with unanimous 
or near unanimous opposition to the program as it is being conducted at 
the present time. Both the bill that I am in charge of managing and the 
bill that has already passed the House of Representatives dramatically 
changes and minimizes that program.
  At the behest of this administration, however, a Seattle Congressman 
put up an amendment to restore the program to its present pristine 
size. Every Member of the House of Representatives representing any 
part of the Columbia Basin voted against that amendment, and yet the 
administration continues to demand it, with all of the interference of 
private agriculture that it entails.
  No. 9, the Department of Agriculture budget--welfare over farmers. 
Two-thirds of the Department of Agriculture's budget is earmarked for 
food and for welfare programs. The essential research conservation and 
on-the-ground farmer programs get lost in the shuffle. Only when there 
is a crisis does the Secretary of Agriculture pay any attention to 
them.
  For 3 consecutive years, the administration's request for farmer 
programs have decreased while the amount requested for food and 
nutrition programs has increased. No one disputes the importance of 
those food and nutrition programs, but we cannot very well feed America 
without providing the funding and infrastructure necessary to enhance 
the production of the most healthy, abundant, safe and inexpensive 
crops in the world.
  No. 8, Columbia-Snake River dams. The President's Council on 
Environmental Policy of the Department of the Interior had made it 
quite clear that major dam removal is very high on their agenda of 
courses of action for the Columbia and Snake Rivers. The Columbia Basin 
in eastern Washington, in eastern Oregon, and in Idaho, was literally a 
dust bowl until the introduction of irrigation. Without it, those 
States would not lead the country in apples, hops, asparagus, and 
potato production.
  The Columbia Basin is a cornucopia for the Nation's food supply. Dam 
drawdown or removal would shut down agriculture in the region. In 
addition, of course, those rivers provide the avenues of transportation 
to get those agricultural products to market, a transportation system 
that would be destroyed by dam removal.
  No. 7, China trade policy--Washington wheat farmers seem not worth 
helping by this administration. For more than 20 years, China has 
refused to import Pacific Northwest wheat because of unfounded, 
nonscientific phytosanitary reasons. They call it ``TCK smut.'' TCK 
smut has never been detected in Washington wheat. It does exist, 
however, in the fields of our wheat-growing counterparts--Canada, 
France and Germany; but China imports from all three.
  The administration seeks a new set of trade relations with China. The 
President went to China. The President, in order to keep peace with 
China, did not so much as mention these trade barriers, ignoring the 
plight of our wheat farmers in the Pacific Northwest. His first 
priority should be to get that barrier lifted.
  No. 6, repeated efforts to eliminate agricultural research. For the 
past 2 years, the administration has recommended zeroing out all of the 
national regionally based agriculture research programs. These programs 
conduct research necessary to all food-producing regions of the 
country. The administration's insistence on nationalizing these 
programs is ludicrous. Obviously, cotton research cannot and should not 
be conducted in eastern Washington; and red delicious apple research is 
not conducted in Mississippi. These regional programs have bolstered 
our already strained land grant education university programs. They are 
absolutely essential, and yet the administration would wipe them out.
  No. 5, no movement on fast-track trade negotiating authority. Fast 
track is essential to establishing trade relations with Chile. 
Currently, the United States exports face an 11-percent tariff in that 
country, giving our competitors an 11-percent advantage. Yet, because 
of objections from members of his own party, the President has 
abandoned the cause of fast-track trade authority.
  No. 4, the agricultural labor shortage--not our problem. The 
administration does not seem to believe that there is an agriculture 
labor shortage and is opposed to the Guest Worker Program to address 
this issue that has already passed the Senate of the United States. In 
the face of that fact, the General Accounting Office estimates that 
over one-third of our Nation's migrant workforce is illegal. By doing 
nothing, the Clinton administration is making lawbreakers out of law-
abiding agriculture employers and proposes to do nothing about it.
  No. 3, sanctions against Pakistan. Sanctions are killing our 
agriculture industries. With more than 40 percent of the world's 
population under U.S. sanctions, the American farmer is locked out of 
many markets. The President instantly imposed sanctions on Pakistan as 
a result of its nuclear tests, and only as a result of action by 
Congress have those sanctions or the effect of those sanctions been at 
least partially removed with respect to Pakistan.
  No. 2, the Endangered Species Act and private property rights. The 
Endangered Species Act impacts eastern Washington farmers and many 
others more than any other environmental regulation, and yet the 
administration, rather than assist in reasonable amendments to the 
Endangered Species Act, insists on ever more rigid enforcement and ever 
more interference with the ability of our farmers to grow the food and 
fiber that the Nation needs.
  No. 1, Al Gore. President Clinton has officially tagged the Vice 
President as the administration's environmental leader. He is the 
promulgator of most of the policies that I have already discussed and 
has constructed environmental roadblocks and headaches for farmers from 
Washington State all across the United States to Florida.
  No one knows the land better than America's hard-working farm 
families. The District of Columbia, the administration, and Al Gore 
should not be dictating to America's farmers how to till, harvest, 
irrigate, employ, and manage their farms. Al Gore and his 
administration need to focus on foreign trade and agricultural 
research, not on locking up private property and overregulating the 
family farm.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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