[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 37 (Tuesday, March 20, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H988-H989]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          AMERICA'S FARMERS AND RANCHERS NEED A NEW FARM BILL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, the 276 million of us who do not work in the 
farming and ranching sectors need to take time today on National 
Agriculture Day to give thanks to the 700,000 men and women of American 
agriculture for all they do to feed our Nation and, indeed, much of the 
rest of the world.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to pay highest tribute to some of the 
hardest working people in America. I know of no other people who take 
such great financial risks, give more of themselves each and every day, 
and who do so with great discipline and dignity.
  With the depression that is afflicting rural regions of our country, 
America needs a new declaration of economic independence, and that 
declaration should insist that America's farmers and ranchers are not 
expendable. Their husbandry and stewardship are central pillars of our 
national security and freedom.
  Today, we are witnessing an alarming hollowing out of America's 
countryside and a wanton destruction of precious arable lands that have 
sustained us and on which future generations will depend.
  Rural America is on life support. The current farm depression, now in 
its fourth year, is the deepest since 1915. This year's prices were at 
a 27-year low.
  The average age of our farmers is 57 years, and now they are getting 
over three-fourths of their earnings in public support because the 
market does not work for them.
  And up until today, National Agriculture Day, what have we heard from 
the new administration? Silence. Not the peacefulness of the 
countryside, but the eerie solemnness of the graveyard.
  President Bush, when he delivered his State of the Union address just 
a few weeks ago in this Chamber, had

[[Page H989]]

 nothing to offer America's farmers. No plans. No solutions. No ideas. 
The budget that he has submitted so far suggests that agriculture's 
crisis will be taken care of out of something called a contingency 
fund. That sounds like it is tangential. Now, how exactly is that 
supposed to happen?
  The President has talked largely about estate taxes, implying that 
farmers can leave their properties to sons and daughters. But what does 
that do to earn a living today and hold on for the rest of their 
productive years?
  Anyone who saw the New York Times story this past weekend saw the 
heart-wrenching story about potato growers in Idaho facing their lowest 
prices in decades. They are worried about having an income. What will a 
tax cut do for them?
  Then yesterday the President spoke on our Nation's energy policy. 
But, for agriculture, it was again the sound of silence. America has 
the ability to convert many of our crops into ethanol and biodiesel, 
throwing off the yoke of international fuel dependency. In fact, if we 
just converted our strategic petroleum reserve to a strategic fuels 
reserve and only fill 2 percent of it with biofuels, we would double 
the production of both ethanol and biodiesel in this country, helping 
to build that new industry from inside this Nation.
  But the President did not mention it, not a word. But he did express 
his appreciation just yesterday to the OPEC ministers who agreed to 
hold price increases to only 7 percent for imported fuel. He thought 
that gesture by them was comforting. It is not comforting to me.
  Mr. President, why do you not offer some comfort to America's farmers 
and ranchers and help them get their prices up the same 7 percent that 
you are willing to accept for oil? Why do you not help them develop new 
products like ethanol and biodiesel? Why do you not tell them what you 
propose to break them out of the cycle of dependency on government farm 
payments? Why do you not offer an agriculture policy that our farmers 
and ranchers can look toward the future?
  Let me start in this way. America's farmers and ranchers need a new 
farm bill that gives equal footing to them in our global marketplace, 
starting out with contracting rights. We need a budget from the 
executive branch that addresses the farm crisis and positions American 
agriculture for the future.
  We need to meet America's energy crisis with a major national 
commitment to biofuels. We must invest in new ways for farmers and 
ranchers to move their products to the market domestically and 
internationally. We need to restore a free market in agriculture and 
enforce antitrust laws.
  We must give farmers and ranchers a place at the bargaining table in 
global trade negotiations, starting with the reform of NAFTA and the 
proposal for the free trade agreement of the Americas. We must launch a 
new homesteading program that ties the chance to retain your farm or to 
own a farm mortgage and title to conservation and holding and 
preserving our arable land for future generations who will depend on 
it.
  Mr. President, it is National Agriculture Day. Help us celebrate it 
by giving America's farmers and ranchers the respect and the attention 
they deserve at the highest levels.

                          ____________________