[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 161 (Tuesday, November 27, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12030-S12031]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            FREEDOM TO FARM

  Mrs. LINCOLN. One of the other issues that was brought up by my 
colleagues earlier was the issue of our agricultural policy in this 
country, which, in my opinion, in the last 4 years has been less than 
what our farmers deserve. It is time now to give them some 
predictability and some understanding of where their Government is 
going to be for them.
  It has been said the only constant is change, and that certainly has 
been true with our national farm policy. For the last 4 years or 
better, farmers--certainly Arkansas farmers--have harvested their crops 
without knowing if they would be able to afford to plant another crop 
in the following growing season. They had no predictability, no 
understanding of whether their Government was going to be for them.
  As they looked at what was happening in the global economy with the 
fact that the European Union was consuming well over 80 percent of 
export subsidies worldwide, they said they were not competing with 
other farmers across the globe.
  Our farmers are competing with other governments. Where has their 
Government been in terms of a solid agricultural policy they can depend 
on, particularly when they go to their financial institutions to get 
the backing they need to put seed in the ground?
  Of course, many remember that Congress passed the Freedom to Farm Act

[[Page S12031]]

back in 1996. For farmers in Arkansas, Freedom to Farm has been a 
disaster because they depended too much on the ability to be able to 
negotiate trade. We put our farmers in a position where, as we said we 
were going to ratchet down the Government support and the Government 
safety net, were they going to have to depend on the market.
  We gave them flexibility. Flexibility was great, but flexibility 
without the backbone in trade does them no good, particularly in a time 
when we are seeing record lows in commodity prices.
  Farmers are getting paid right now the same they were being paid in 
the early 1940s, and yet their input costs are the highest they have 
ever been. They are making the same they were in 1940 when a combine 
probably cost them about $15,000 to $25,000, and now they are paying 
anywhere from $180,000 to $200,000 for a combine.
  Arkansas farmers and farmers around the country have been in limbo 
year after year, waiting for Congress to pass emergency spending 
bills. The existing farm policy is absolutely inadequate. A farmer 
cannot just go to the banker and say, I think Congress is going to 
provide us an emergency spending bill this year so you need to make 
sure you go ahead and give me that loan and maybe wait for another 9 to 
12 months to find out whether or not it will be backed by the 
Government.

  As has the senior member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, I have 
worked with my colleagues on that committee to write a bill this year, 
to get out of the Agriculture Committee a good, positive, and 
comprehensive bill to address the needs of our farmers. I have been 
increasingly concerned and dismayed as the Senate rushes to complete 
its business by the end of the year that farmers again will be left 
behind. That is why, again, I was so proud to see the majority leader 
come to the floor today to say we are going to take up a farm bill on 
the Senate floor.
  The Senate Agriculture Committee, under the leadership of Chairman 
Harkin, has done its work to come up with a good bill that is 
comprehensive, that will provide the safety net, as well as far-
reaching, new, and innovative issues we need in a farm bill. They have 
done their job. We will bring it up on the floor.
  The House has done their job in passing a bill. We can compromise on 
these bills because they have been created in a way that they have many 
similarities. We can get a bill to the desk of the President this year 
so our farmers, once again, do not have to go into the new year with 
the uncertainty and the complete unpredictability of not knowing where 
their Government will be.
  The Senate must pass this bill before we adjourn for the year because 
it is imperative, as the farmers go into this next planting season, 
they have something they can bank on, one with a solid safety net that 
ensures not only the financial viability of our farmers but also the 
viability of local bankers, merchants, seed dealers, fertilizer 
dealers, implement dealers, and rural institutions that depend on the 
stability our farmers provide.
  The Senate bill also provided much needed funding for rural 
development and nutrition programs for disadvantaged families to help 
those parts of our Nation where the needs are the greatest. An 
unbelievable conservation title helps in new and innovative ways, 
placing the resources and efforts into proven conservation practices 
that our farmers know they can use to mitigate those marginal lands on 
which it is more costly to produce. It includes funding for research 
and development to ensure that America remains a technological and 
economic powerhouse in the coming century. It provides funding for 
forestry, biofuel development, and credit financing programs to 
guarantee sound farm financing.
  The economy in this great Nation is in a delicate state. There is 
nothing that we can do here that will guarantee we will not go into a 
recession. But there is one thing we can do that will absolutely 
guarantee a recession. We have seen it in our history's past. That is 
that we allow the rural economy to collapse. If that rural economy 
collapses, we will be assured not only of a recession but much greater 
problems in our economy in coming years.
  I applaud the majority leader for bringing up the issues on which we 
have worked. We have worked out the details. It will be of great 
assistance to the American people, particularly in rural America. As we 
begin with a farm bill that will be a great stimulus package to rural 
America, we can also work out the details of an economic stimulus 
package that will be comprehensive in helping workers in transition and 
also provide the tax relief that industries need, particularly small 
businesses, to be able to grow and thrive and increase a growing 
economy.
  I hope that in the several days we have ahead of us and the work 
there is yet to be done we can continue along the road that the 
majority leader has paved for us in putting out these issues, that we 
can get some agreement that will be beneficial to the American people, 
and that we can all go home at the end of these 2 weeks to a holiday 
and know we have done our very best. That is what we owe to the people.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THOMAS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the order for 
the quorum call be dispensed with.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. THOMAS. I ask unanimous consent to speak for 5 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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