[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 42 (Wednesday, March 17, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H1390]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 THERE IS A CRISIS ON THE AMERICAN FARM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from North Dakota (Mr. Pomeroy) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POMEROY. Mr. Speaker, I want to commend my colleague, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur), for the comments she has just made 
regarding the crisis on the American farm. Representing the State of 
North Dakota in this body, a congressional district that has more 
production acres for agriculture than any other district in the House 
of Representatives, I can only affirm all too well the truth of what 
she is saying.
  There is a crisis on the farm. If we do not act as a Congress and act 
quickly, the face of farming in this country will be changed. We will 
move from agriculture production primarily based with family farmers to 
vast corporate farms, changing forever the way our food is produced and 
a way of life in much of our country.
  The critical element that has made the low commodity prices so 
particularly hard on our farmers relates directly back to a change made 
by this Congress in the farm bill that we are presently under.
  In 1948, Congress acted to establish some measure of price protection 
for farmers, recognizing that there is going to be great volatility in 
the prices commodities will bring given any number of circumstances, 
but more recently it has been the ebb and flow of demand in the global 
marketplace.
  The prior policy for farm programs has been that the United States 
Government has got the capacity to backstop individual farmers to 
protect them from the worst ravages of loss when prices fall through 
the floor. The last farm bill changed all that. We no longer afford our 
farmers any price protection. We have protected the Treasury of the 
Federal Government but we have left the fortunes of individual families 
out there on the farmsteads completely exposed to the ebb and flow of 
market prices.
  The Asia financial collapse has absolutely destroyed commodity prices 
in this country. Small wonder. Japan, our number one export market for 
small grains, down 10 percent; Korea, number 4 market, off one-third, 
and so it goes.
  So we have much more supply relative to market and prices' fall, and 
this time without a safety net. Small wonder in year two of the new 
farm bill its critical weakness was already glaringly exposed and 
exposed to such a dimension that in a bipartisan way we had to quickly 
get some money out of the Treasury and commit it to farmers in the 
shape of a disaster bill passed last fall in light of the national 
dimensions of the crisis in agriculture we had seen.
  We have more to do this Congress. Do not think for one second that 
that disaster bill passed in October forestalls a total catastrophe in 
farm country without further action.
  The first thing we must do is pass the supplemental. The White House 
has advanced an appropriations request that will afford absolutely 
critically needed loan money and guaranteed loan money available so 
that a number of farmers can get in the fields this spring that 
otherwise will not have operating capital to do so and that for others 
still they will be able to restructure their financial situation in 
such a way that they will be able to cashflow, whereas otherwise they 
would not be able to cashflow.
  Let me say something about cashflow, however. In my neck of the 
woods, given the commodities we produce, primarily small grains, one 
can get in today's market prices enough at the elevator to cover the 
costs that have been invested in that product. Therefore, lenders this 
spring are engaging in what is called equity lending; equity lending.
  It does not sound all that bad but let me say what it means. It means 
that farmers are reducing their net worth. They are having to 
capitalize their assets because they cannot even make enough on the 
sale of their crop for what it takes to grow the crop.
  We need to come back and visit this whole safety net for farming 
issue. We need to make some changes in the farm bill. It has fallen 
short and we now see where. Farmers need price protection. We need to 
make certain that there is a measure of price protection restored. 
Otherwise, we are going to be in this situation spring and fall every 
single year. Mark my words on this. We are going to have emergency 
supplemental bills in the spring and we are going to have disaster 
bills at harvest time trying to prop up America's farmers.
  Let us not leave them hanging on the next action of Congress acting 
in such an ad hoc way every spring and every fall. Let us restore a 
safety net for America's farmers. Anything else will be catastrophic 
for the family farmers of this country.

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