[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 119 (Thursday, September 10, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H7560]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        AMERICAN FAMILY FARMERS

  (Mr. ABERCROMBIE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. ABERCROMBIE. Mr. Speaker, I merely want to indicate that coming, 
as I do, from a State in which rural and urban constituencies meld into 
one another in ways that may not always be fully appreciated by the 
public at large, and representing the urban part of the State of 
Hawaii, I want to indicate that I am in full sympathy with that and 
want to express not only to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston), 
but to all others who are finding themselves in this circumstance, that 
those of us who are working with sugar producers in the State of Hawaii 
fully understand what the implications are from foreign workers who are 
exploited and being utilized against American workers and against 
American growers, coming into the picture under adverse circumstances 
such as the gentleman has just outlined.
  And I want to assure my colleague that those of us from urban areas 
who understand that this is a necessity for an integrated approach on 
behalf of Americans, both rural and urban, it being necessary not just 
for their survival, but for the prosperity of the country are in full 
sympathy with him and want to work with him on it.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. ABERCROMBIE. I yield to the gentleman from Georgia.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I want to say, from Georgia to Hawaii, we 
are happy to work for the American family farmer; and at this point, if 
we do not help them, we will not have a family farmer left.

                              {time}  1830

  So we are unified in party and geography on this.

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