[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 52 (Wednesday, May 1, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3608-S3609]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             THE FARM BILL

  Mr. HOLLINGS. Madam President, my plea is to the brothers and sisters 
in the lodge this afternoon. It came to mind last evening, when I met 
with the maritime folks that if our Amtrak is about to be phased out in 
October, and rail transportation is about to end for the passengers, 
and if the airlines are all in financial difficulty, we need more 
American construction, American ships, crewed with American crews, and 
those kinds of things. Yet we are just about to pass a wonderful farm 
bill.
  They have gotten together in a compromise on the farm legislation. 
This Senator has supported agriculture for nearly 50 years in public 
office. In fact, I took my farmers to the west coast. I found out, back 
40 years ago, that our total farm income in South Carolina was around 
$380 million, and out in Orange County, CA, one county had $384 million 
in total farm income. So they knew something more about agriculture 
than we did. And we had a 100-year start in agriculture in the little 
State of South Carolina before they had even founded California.
  So I have been in the vanguard, in the forefront of developing our 
corn and our soybeans. The grain elevator was constructed when I was 
Governor. I could go on down the list of the different caucuses we have 
developed and the trips we made with the farmers to the markets 
overseas.
  Just please, I ask my farm friends, don't give me this protectionism 
talk about we are ruining trade and trade relations and trade 
agreements, having gotten all the subsidies, all the protection you 
could possibly imagine.
  They have gotten this 73-some-odd-billion-dollar farm bill. They get 
all the subsidies, which I support. And I hope the Senate supports it. 
They get the Ex-Im Bank to finance.
  I see one of my agricultural Senator friends coming to the Chamber. I 
am sure he is not going to talk about protectionism. I am trying to get 
some of the farm votes to help us on fast track.
  Then they get the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. They get 
all the help.
  I experienced this when I campaigned out in Iowa in the '80s. They 
had me on an early morning news show there in Des Moines, and they 
said: Senator, how do you come from a textile State with all that 
protection and subsidies, and you expect to get the farm vote? They had 
no idea I did not get any subsidies. I was just trying to hold on to 
the jobs that we had.
  So we need the farmers' help. Don't talk about Public Law 480. I know 
one of the Senators from Iowa has a favorite. After he gets his 
subsidies, then he comes on the floor and he says: No. We want to ship 
our PL-480s, our agriculture, under this Federal act to the other 
countries of the world because we can do it cheaper.
  Well, we can produce agriculture cheaper, too. We almost did with the 
Freedom to Farm Act, but it did not work. But it can be done. So don't 
give us: Let's do away with it, having gotten all of mine, then I want 
yours, too. In essence, the farmers ought to wake up.
  I want to show what has happened in agriculture with these charts I 
have in the Chamber. This chart shows that in 1996, under the 
Department of Commerce figures, we exported more than $8 billion of 
corn annually. And you can see where it has gone. It went down in the 
year 2000 to about $4.5 billion. Now, why?
  The Chinese are not only producing textiles, they are producing corn.
  I followed the statistical flow downwards of wheat. I asked about the 
Chinese, how do they do it? And the answer is, they are very clever. 
Now they are shipping their wheat to Korea, Japan, and other places, 
and still importing ours so as to keep an appearance of the need for 
wheat. But, actually, they are exporting more than they are importing.
  Let's look at the agriculture surpluses from the chart I have in the 
Chamber. I want everyone to know that we are not only losing our 
manufacturing capability, our industrial backbone, but the United 
States has lost agriculture surplus since NAFTA.
  Beginning in 1994 we had about a $1 billion surplus with Mexico and 
Canada in agriculture. Now that we have free trade, free trade, free 
trade, we have a deficit of close to $1.5 billion. Well, we are bound 
to lose with the higher standard of living in the United States of 
America. We are bound to lose some industrial jobs. But we are going to 
pick up agriculture.
  Ah, no, sirree, we did not pick it up. They are losing their shirt 
and don't even know it. That is what we want our farmer Senators to 
know about. They are losing their shirt and don't even know it. They 
have been going out of business. And you are going back home and 
saying: Look, look what we have done. We have helped you. You need even 
more protection.
  Here is what has happened with respect to citrus. We went from a $700 
million surplus to about $650 million surplus in our exports. We have 
our Senator here who said it was sort of immoral. We had a moral 
obligation to go along with the Andean trade pact. They needed help. We 
are trying to get them out of drugs and tell them to grow bananas and 
pineapples. That is what it is all about.
  What do you think we have gotten from Colombia? Not a thing in that

[[Page S3609]]

agreement. From Ecuador, from Bolivia? We did not get anything in that 
one-way agreement. But here is what happened with citrus.
  Now, I do not like to be vindictive or seem to be petty, but I would 
like to come down to the 17-percent tariff on textiles from the Andean 
countries and bring citrus down from 50 percent--50 percent, I say to 
the Senator--down to the 17 percent.
  Tell these citrus boys, tell these agriculture boys, don't talk about 
China and Japan and India, be fair, be fair; Mexico, be fair. Let's be 
fair to each other. We are all U.S. Senators. We represent one country. 
And we represent agriculture.
  I have agriculture and I have textiles. I have steel. I told a story 
about Nucor. I am glad President Bush acted.
  Here is wheat. Where are those wheat farmers? In 1996, we exported 
more than $6 billion in Durum wheat. In 2001, we exported less than 
$3.5 billion.
  You are going out of business, Senator. You are gone. I am losing my 
textiles. You are losing your wheat. They can give us a little tin cup 
and we can stand out on the sidewalk and beg because you and I are 
being put out of business. You are a leader here on trying to awake the 
town and tell the people.
  Mr. DORGAN. I wonder if the Senator from South Carolina would yield 
for a question.
  Mr. HOLLINGS. I would be delighted to yield, if we have time.

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