[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 10 (Thursday, January 25, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S568-S569]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. WELLSTONE (for himself, Mr. Harkin, Mr. Feingold, Mr. 
        Conrad, and Mr. Dorgan):
  S. 178. A bill to permanently reenact chapter 12 of title 11, United 
States Code, relating to family farmers; to the Committee on the 
Judiciary.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, I rise today along with Senators 
Harkin, Feingold, Conrad, and Dorgan to introduce legislation that 
would make permanent Chapter 12 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
  Chapter 12, the Chapter of the Bankruptcy Code designated for 
farmers, provides critical protection for family farmers who find 
themselves in desperate economic circumstances. Ideally, the goal of 
federal farm policy should be to sustain the ability of family farmers 
to produce and sell a competitive product, to preserve healthy and 
viable rural communities and to keep family farmers out of bankruptcy. 
However, when farmers are forced to seek bankruptcy protection, Chapter 
12, because it is tailored specifically to farmers, often allows the 
farmer to keep his or her farm while reorganizing debt and making 
payments to creditors.
  Extension of Chapter 12 is made all the more urgent by the current 
state of the farm economy. Prices are now so low that many family 
farmers are lucky to stay in business as market prices are lower than 
their cost of production. The value of field crops is expected to have 
been more than 24 percent lower in 2000 than it was in 1996--42 percent 
lower for wheat, 39 percent lower for corn, and 26 percent lower for 
soybeans. But farmers' expenses are not falling by the same amount. In 
fact, they are not falling at all. Farmers cannot maintain cash flow if 
their selling prices are falling through the floor while their buying 
prices are shooting through the roof.
  Chapter 12 expired on June 30th of last year. Efforts last year to 
extend it or to make it permanent were held hostage to controversial 
bankruptcy ``reform'' legislation and, as a result, Congress adjourned 
in December without taking any action to reinstate this critical safety 
net. This legislation would make Chapter 12 a permanent part of the 
code, eliminating the need for future extensions. It is also 
retroactive to July 1, 2000.
  I hope that in the 107th Congress we can stop using farmers as pawns 
in the debate over bankruptcy reform. Permanent Chapter 12 is 
completely noncontroversial. We could pass this bill by unanimous 
consent tomorrow, and we should. I note that a nearly identical measure 
has been introduced in the House by Congressman Nick Smith. Given that 
the House last year passed two chapter 12 extensions which the Senate 
declined to act on, if the Senate this year took leadership on this 
issue and passed this bill, the House would swiftly follow. Farmers 
have been

[[Page S569]]

without this safety net long enough, and I urge my colleagues to take 
action by passing this measure.
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