[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 155 (Saturday, September 27, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9973-S9977]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         HELP FOR RURAL AMERICA

  Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I intend to speak for these next few 
minutes, and then perhaps at least once or twice more as the day goes 
on. As you know, yesterday, because of my initial insistence on a 
potential rollcall vote that would require the Senate to come back, we 
were able to at least secure the introduction, at least the 
introduction of a bipartisan bill cosponsored by several leaders on the 
Republican side in agriculture and several leaders on our side on 
agriculture.
  We voted to extend our Government operations until March. And 
attached to that continuing resolution were four very important bills 
to this country--Homeland Security, Defense appropriations, Homeland 
Security appropriations, in which I had a hand, as all of us did, in 
crafting. It has a disaster aid package, very specific, not a stimulus, 
not a spending bill, but a disaster aid package of $22 billion that was 
passed.
  The aid package is going to be a great help for the States of 
Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, particularly, that were hit so hard by 
these last storms. That is Congress's responsibility, not to do it all, 
but to step up in times of disaster and help States and cities and 
counties through these major disasters.
  I am starting to feel as if I am an expert on disasters, not 
something I want to be or that I am happy to be, because there is 
nothing happy about people losing their life savings, the only home 
they have ever lived in, having to use up all of their savings that 
they had for their retirement or their grandchildren or children's 
college education, to try to keep their home together after everything 
they have ever known is gone.
  I have, unfortunately, in my short career here in the Senate, had to 
be witness to too many of these kinds of disasters in the State I 
represent. This Congress, particularly, I have to say, the Democratic 
Congress, has been very generous to help the people of Louisiana and 
Mississippi. I have been joined at times by Republican leaders who have 
understood what we are going through.
  But a few hours ago we passed a bill with some objections, and mine 
was one, that said there was a glaring omission in all of these bills. 
It looks as though unless something is done in the next few days this 
Congress may leave here with $700 billion for Wall Street and zero for 
farmers.
  I represent large cities such as New Orleans, my hometown, and large 
parishes such as Jefferson Parish, in my neighboring city; cities such 
as our capital city, which is now the largest city in Louisiana because 
of the damage done to New Orleans by Katrina.
  But I also represent rural communities such as Delhi and Rayville, 
and Cheneyville, and Dry Prong, and other places in between that have 
suffered tremendously, not just from the levee breaches but from the 
hurricanes and the rain from Fay that hit Florida, but dumped inches of 
rain on our State, Ike and Gustav.
  I have spent a good bit of the morning, and I wish to spend now, 
reading into the Record the real description of this disaster and 
continue to ask in public places such as this, on the floor of the 
Senate, for the leaders to come together and do something before we 
leave.
  As I speak, the delegation from Louisiana on the House side is 
gaining signatures from the legislators in Mississippi, the Congressmen 
from Mississippi, Texas, and Arkansas to join this effort, and 
agriculture commissioners around the State, around the country, led by 
Mike Strain, our commissioner, interestingly enough, who is a 
Republican, I am a Democrat. This is not a partisan issue, this is an 
issue of fairness and justice, to try to help get our farmers some help 
before we send a $700 billion package or $350 billion package or $100 
billion package, whether it is in one tranche or three tranches or 
seven tranches, could there possibly be a tranche for middle America, 
and particularly for our farmers and our rural communities?
  I wish to read a portion of a beautifully written statement that was 
delivered before my subcommittee earlier this week as we scrambled to 
get our information and our data together. It is not as though we were 
dillydallying or waiting to the last minute.
  These storms, both Ike and Gustav, happened within the month. Ike 
happened 2 weeks ago. The people of Galveston literally were allowed 
back in the city I think 3 days ago to basically look, cry, and leave. 
I have witnessed this before as people came back to look, cry, and 
leave, all throughout the coast of Mississippi and Louisiana.
  Well, my heart goes out to Galveston and to Houston. I committed to 
their leaders and to all of them, I will do everything I can in the 
time here to help them.
  In the midst of all this, focused on levees and breakwaters and 
rising tides, what the Congress has forgotten is that rains accompany a 
lot of these storms. The rains fell and fell and fell and devastated 
parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas. Of course, earlier in 
the year, we had the great floods in the Midwest. Of course, even 
earlier in the year, we had the great fires in California. I am not 
here saying woe is us, we are the only ones who ever have disasters. 
What I am saying is, this Congress should not leave trying to bail out 
Wall Street and leave farmers holding soggy rice or sugarcane or rotten 
sweet potatoes or cotton in their hands that cannot be harvested. 
People are scratching their heads, asking me: Does anybody know we are 
out here? Does anybody care?
  I was privileged to have Wallace Ellender IV testify before our 
Agriculture Committee this week. The interesting historical note is 
that his

[[Page S9974]]

grandfather was actually the chair of the Agriculture Committee. We had 
the hearing in the same room that his grandfather chaired, Senator 
Ellender from Louisiana, a great Senator and a man I knew as a child. 
He chaired the Agriculture Committee.
  I would like to read into the Record a portion of this testimony 
because I thought it was beautifully written and so appropriate for the 
time. Wallace Ellender writes not only as a sugarcane farmer himself 
but as chairman of the National Legislative Committee of the American 
Sugar Cane League.
  He writes:

       My brother and I are fifth-generation farmers who grow 
     sugarcane on two farms in the Raceland and Bourg communities 
     in southeast Louisiana, including the land that my ancestors 
     settled in 1853. As a child, I remember my grandfather 
     telling me a story about a stubborn dog that he had when he 
     was a kid on our farm. On one occasion, the family loaded up 
     everyone but the dog in a sailboat and sailed down the bayou 
     to the Gulf. That dog trotted down the bayou behind the boat 
     all the way down to the Gulf at Timballier Island. Other than 
     fording a couple of small streams, he went all the way on 
     foot. Today, that dog would have to swim 30 miles to reach 
     timballier Island.
  Where Timballier Island is, is washing away at an alarming rate. This 
is the coast of Louisiana. Timballier Island would be right down in 
this section. I wish to repeat:

       That dog trotted down the bayou behind the boat all the way 
     to Timballier island. Other than fording a couple of small 
     streams, he went all the way on foot. Today that dog would 
     have to swim 30 miles to get to the island.

  As I have said time and time again, if this Congress does not do 
more--and this administration--to send urgent and direct help through 
revenue sharing and some special disaster relief, there will not be any 
farms in south Louisiana left.
  He continues:

       Gone are some of the barrier islands and most of the 
     wetlands that served as a natural buffer from the worst of 
     the storms that came in from the Gulf of Mexico. We are 
     losing coastal wetlands at a rate of 40 square miles each 
     year. Some experts predict that the shoreline will move 
     inland over 30 miles in the next 30 years.
       I hope this gives you some perspective of the breadth of 
     the long-term problem our communities are facing when we look 
     to the south. I don't have to tell anyone who owns a TV or 
     computer about winds that demolish houses and flatten forests 
     and fields, or floods that overwhelm levees and shove aside 
     homes, but the ominous power of the sea when it surges 20-30 
     miles inland is something to behold. What the sea leaves 
     behind when it retreats can be bad, but what it leaves behind 
     when it stays in the fields is worse. Once breached, levees 
     that held back the tide will hold back the ebbing waters. We 
     tear holes in the levees when necessary to allow the sea to 
     retreat, but sea surges of the magnitude of Rita in 2005 and 
     Ike in 2008 flow over the levees and push vast volumes of 
     seawater to the lowest elevations in the fields. When the 
     tides turn, the storm-ravaged cane fields become salt lakes.
       But sugarcane is a hearty plant and, with good weather and 
     time, the cane can rebound and produce a decent crop. 
     Harvesting it will be more difficult,and costly, but we can 
     still hope for a mild autumn and a good price to help offset 
     some of the additional costs we will incur in harvesting a 
     bent and broken crop. On the other hand, we may not have much 
     time to finish planting and harvesting before winter frosts 
     and freeze become a concern. Further complicating the matter, 
     sugarcane is a perennial crop and time will be needed to 
     determine whether fields holding surge water for extended 
     periods will recover next year.

  He goes on to say:

       According to Dr. Calvin Viator and his team of agricultural 
     consultants, the worst of the wind damage to sugarcane from 
     Gustav occurred in Terrebonne Parish, Assumption Parish, and 
     parts of Lafourche, Ascension, Iberville, West Baton Rouge 
     and Point Coupee Parishes.

  All these parishes are here, and this represents about 2 million 
people in the southern part of the State.
  He says:

       The northeastern corner of the eye of the hurricane caused 
     the worst stalk breakage, but this damage occurred virtually 
     everywhere in the cane belt.

  He writes:

       Hurricane Ike's eye stayed to our south as it moved in on 
     Texas, but this meant that the counter-clockwise winds drove 
     the sea surge deep into Louisiana's cane belt in a manner 
     eerily familiar to those of us who experienced Hurricane Rita 
     in 2005.

  I wish to stop here and say it is hard to describe the magnitude of 
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the largest natural disasters in the 
history of the United States, flooding more than the land of Great 
Britain, causing economic damage, up to $150 to $200 billion by 
estimates from conservatives to liberals, estimates from some of the 
greatest economic think tanks in the country. But all of that aside, to 
have that happen 3 years ago and then have other storms, Gustav and 
Ike, hit the same region again is more than I can possibly describe.
  He goes on to describe the destruction that is occurring right now. 
This is one of our most successful farmers. This farmer is a wealthy 
farmer. Whether he and his family will be able to make it, I don't 
know, but whether you are a wealthy farmer or a middle-income farmer or 
barely scraping by, the Government has an obligation to respond to 
disasters that are not of your making. Our leaders have been meeting 
nonstop for 2 weeks, 3 weeks, and longer in other meetings, trying to 
figure out a way to handle a disaster that was of our making. These 
farmers in Louisiana and Mississippi and Arkansas and throughout the 
country had no hand in this. It was a natural disaster. Yet we have to 
put up $700 billion for a bailout for Wall Street and the financial 
markets, and we can't seem to find $1 billion to help families.
  I will submit this letter for the Record, but I will close with this 
statement. I know some people listening to me might say: Senator 
Landrieu, every time we see you, you are asking for help. Every time we 
hear you, you are saying some other group needs help.
  I wish to read, on behalf of sugarcane farmers, this sentence:

       For the record, Louisiana sugarcane growers have received 
     agricultural disaster assistance [just] twice in 200 years of 
     production.

  I wish to repeat that. We have received, for all the work that has 
been done, disaster assistance twice in 200 years. Can I say, as their 
Senator, I don't think that is too much to ask once every hundred 
years. Some people come to this floor and can't wait until the ink is 
dry on the tax bill before they come and ask for another loophole, 
another deduction. They can't wait to take their taxes offshore so they 
don't have to pay anything. Our farmers in Louisiana have gotten 
disaster assistance twice in 200 years. I am here asking for them a 
third time, and I don't think that is too much. They have nowhere to 
go. They are literally between the sea and disaster. That is the 
sugarcane farmers in south Louisiana and in north Louisiana.
  I wish to put up a picture of the cotton crop and what it looks like 
because it is up north. I wish to submit for the Record part of the 
beautiful testimony written by Jay Hardwick.
  I understand I have how much more time?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
  Ms. LANDRIEU. I ask unanimous consent for 3 more minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Ms. LANDRIEU. This is beautiful testimony by Jay Hardwick, who is 
vice chairman of the National Cotton Council. Jay is from Newellton, 
LA, a small town up north. He is also director of the peanut board, 
past president of the cotton producers, a man who works hard and knows 
his business well. He farms 7,300 acres of cotton, corn, grain, 
peanuts, soybean, and wheat. He is diversified.
  He says:

       Our producing mission is to achieve a viable and profitable 
     farm enterprise while providing a balance between habitat and 
     production resources with a minimum impact upon the farm 
     ecosystem. Emphasis is placed on conservation crop production 
     methods including no-till, crop rotation, residue 
     maintenance, erosion control and precision technologies to 
     apply and reduce pesticides and nutrient resources to help 
     restore and improve water, air, soil, wildlife habitat. . . .

  He continues:

       Plentiful fish, deer, turkey, neotropical birds, migratory 
     waterfowl, turtles, alligators, black bears, and increased 
     sightings of eagles and various cat family members inhabit 
     the property.

  Our farmers are getting so smart and so good, and they have so much 
respect from me, trying to use so many techniques to not just produce 
the healthiest food and fiber in the Nation but to do it in an 
economical and environmentally safe way. They were environmentalists 
before the term was made cool in Washington. The farmers in America 
were the first environmentalists and always will be. They continue

[[Page S9975]]

to apply techniques to minimize damage.
  If the people on Wall Street took as much care in their business to 
minimize damage as farmers in America do every day before 9 o'clock in 
the morning, we would not be here this weekend. For this Congress to 
leave without doing anything is a gross violation of our 
responsibility. This is what the cotton crop looks like, not because 
there was some ``fancy dancy'' paper taken out and it just turned it 
bad.
  A hurricane came through and rains fell and the farmers could not get 
it out of the fields fast enough.
  I see the leader. I thank the Senate, at least some Members, for 
stepping up this morning--Thad Cochran and others--to sign on to a bill 
that might provide some relief to the farmers, not only in Louisiana 
but Texas and Mississippi, Alabama, and throughout. I will continue to 
speak about this as time allows and continue to push the leaders on 
both sides to come up with something that we can do before we leave.
  Mr. REID. Don't forget Arkansas.
  Ms. LANDRIEU. And Arkansas.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to print in the Record the 
testimonies to which I referred.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

       My name is Wallace Ellender IV, a Louisiana sugarcane 
     farmer and Chairman of the National Legislative Committee of 
     the American Sugar Cane League. I appreciate the opportunity 
     to speak to you today about the effectiveness of agricultural 
     disaster assistance. I speak as a farmer whose crop was 
     twisted and flattened by Gustav, then swamped in seawater by 
     Ike. A representative group of photos is attached to my 
     written testimony. I took some of those photos myself, three 
     days after Ike came through. Other photos came from the 
     Franklin area and the same scenes could be found all along 
     Highway 90, the road you'll see in one of the aerial photos. 
     Highway 90 is the east-west evacuation route and it runs 
     approximately 10 miles north of the Coast.
       My brother and I are fifth-generation farmers who grow 
     sugarcane on two farms in the Raceland and Bourg communities 
     in southeast Louisiana, including the land that my ancestors 
     settled in 1853. As a child, I remember my grandfather 
     telling me a story about a stubborn dog that he had when he 
     was a kid on our farm. On one occasion, the family loaded up 
     everyone but the dog in a sailboat and sailed down the bayou 
     to the Gulf. That dog trotted down the bayou behind the boat 
     all the way down to the Gulf at Timballier Island. Other than 
     fording a couple of small streams, he went all the way on 
     foot. Today, that dog would have to swim 30 miles to reach 
     Timballier Island.
       Gone are some of the barrier islands and most of the 
     wetlands that served as a natural buffer from the worst of 
     the storms that came in from the Gulf of Mexico. We are 
     losing coastal wetlands at a rate of 40 square miles each 
     year. Some experts predict that the shoreline will move 
     inland over 30 miles in the next 30 years.
       I hope this gives you some perspective of the breadth of 
     the long-term problem our communities are facing when we look 
     to the south. I don't have to tell anyone who owns a TV or 
     computer about winds that demolish houses and flatten forests 
     and fields, or floods that overwhelm levees and shove aside 
     homes, but the ominous power of the sea when it surges 20-30 
     miles inland is something to behold. What the sea leaves 
     behind when it retreats can be bad, but what it leaves behind 
     when it stays in the fields is worse. Once breached, levees 
     that held back the tide will hold back the ebbing waters. We 
     tear holes in the levees when necessary to allow the sea to 
     retreat, but sea surges of the magnitude of Rita in 2005 and 
     Ike in 2008 flow over the levees and push vast volumes of 
     seawater to the lowest elevations in the fields. When the 
     tides turn, the storm-ravaged cane fields become salt lakes.
       But sugarcane is a hearty plant and, with good weather and 
     time, the cane can rebound and produce a decent crop. 
     Harvesting it will be more difficult and costly, but we can 
     still hope for a mild autumn and a good price to help offset 
     some of the additional costs we will incur in harvesting a 
     bent and broken crop. On the other hand, we may not have much 
     time to finish planting and harvesting before winter frosts 
     and freeze become a concern. Further complicating the matter, 
     sugarcane is a perennial crop and time will be needed to 
     determine whether fields holding surge water for extended 
     periods will recover next year.
       According to Dr. Calvin Viator and his team of agricultural 
     consultants, the worst of the wind damage to sugarcane from 
     Gustav occurred in Terrebonne Parish, Assumption Parish, and 
     parts of Lafourche, Ascension, Iberville, West Baton Rouge 
     and Point Coupee parishes. The northeastern corner of the eye 
     of the hurricane caused the worst stalk breakage, but this 
     damage occurred virtually everywhere in the cane belt. The 
     cane varieties that tend to produce higher tonnage suffered 
     more breakage than lower-yielding varieties, and the 
     brittleness of the higher-yielding varieties will make 
     cutting the cane more problematic.
       Hurricane Ike's eye stayed to our south as it moved in on 
     Texas, but this meant that its counter-clockwise winds drove 
     the sea surge deep into the Louisiana cane belt in a manner 
     eerily familiar to those of us who experienced Hurricane Rita 
     in 2005. In some areas, the damage was even worse than Rita. 
     From my farm in Bourg, across Terrebonne, St Mary's, Iberia 
     and Vermillion Parishes, levees were topped and standing 
     water remains.
       As a general rule, we keep a field in production, using 
     existing root systems, for three years and, after harvesting 
     the third crop, let that ground stay fallow for nearly a year 
     before replanting. So I always have roughly 25 percent of my 
     fields lying fallow, except for that brief time each year 
     when we start harvesting mature cane for the purpose of 
     planting the fallow ground. This generally occurs in August 
     and September. But the rainy weeks before Gustav came left us 
     way behind in our planting, so there is less newly planted 
     cane to be lost to the surge. This may sound like good news, 
     but the delay in planting increases our risk of not being 
     able to plant some of the fields before winter sets in. This 
     delay also has the potential of pushing harvest deeper into 
     the winter months, when a heavy frost or hard freeze can 
     destroy whatever is left in the fields.
       In order to increase our chances of getting new growth from 
     the damaged cane we will be planting over the next few weeks, 
     we will use more acres of our mature cane as seed for the 
     fallow fields. In my case, this will mean that I will use 260 
     acres of mature cane to plant 800 acres of fallow ground this 
     year. Typically, I would use only 160 acres to plant that 
     same acreage. Income from one hundred acres of sugarcane that 
     I would normally deliver to the processing facility will be 
     lost.
       You have asked for my experience with crop insurance as a 
     disaster assistance tool. Our growers have traditionally had 
     access to only one type of crop insurance policy, the Actual 
     Production History (APH) program. The costs of APH buy-up 
     coverage have been prohibitively high, as USDA's Risk 
     Management Agency acknowledged this past year when it lowered 
     the APH rates in response to potential competition from a 
     farmer-developed Group Risk Program (GRP) policy. While the 
     rates are lower, the buy-up coverage has not been seen as 
     reducing our actual risks by a sufficient amount to make the 
     added expense worthwhile for most of our farmers.
       Despite the destructive natural forces that are sometimes 
     unleashed against it, the sugarcane plant is a hearty 
     survivor and catastrophic production losses, meaning losses 
     of greater than 50 percent, are rare. Since 1995, when 
     Louisiana sugarcane participation in crop insurance went from 
     $2 million in liability to over $61 million, the 
     cumulative loss ratio has been approximately .17. Since 
     nearly 90 percent of our policies are the basic 
     catastrophic coverage, which has been a prerequisite for 
     disaster assistance eligibility in the past, this loss 
     ratio can conceal significant losses to a farmer's bottom-
     line. The GRP policy will be available in the coming year 
     and we are hopeful that the GRP program may be a more 
     useful and affordable insurance policy for our growers in 
     the future. Initial modeling suggests that it would be a 
     significantly better risk management product in hurricane 
     years.
       The new permanent disaster assistance program included in 
     the '08 Farm Bill has not been implemented and regulations 
     explaining how the Department will administer the program are 
     still under development. As I understand the Supplemental 
     Revenue Assistance Payment Program, or SURE, it provides 
     payments to producers in disaster counties based on the crop 
     insurance program. The revenue guarantee is equal to 115 
     percent of (payment rate x payment acres x payment yield). 
     The payment rate is the crop insurance price election level, 
     the payment acres are the insured planted acres and the 
     payment yield is the crop insurance coverage level selected 
     by the farmer times the crop insurance yield. The sum of this 
     equation is then subtracted by the revenues from the whole 
     farm (except that 85 percent of the direct government 
     payments that most program crop farmers receive are excluded 
     from this calculation) and multiplied by 60 percent.
       If the goal is to provide a hand-up to farmers when they 
     most need it, before the natural disaster becomes a full-
     fledged economic one, the SURE program's linkage to whole 
     farm revenue is problematic. For sugarcane farmers, this 
     requirement would mean that any SURE payment would come 
     approximately a year after the disaster occurs. Based on the 
     experience of many of our farmers who were hit hard in 2005, 
     the assistance can arrive too late to save the farm, even if 
     it does ameliorate some of the debt load after the fact. As a 
     farmer dealing with another spike in input costs, the 
     assistance is most helpful if it can be used to keep my 
     employees working; my diesel tanks filled, and my banker 
     hoping for the best.
       Regrettably, we have been unable to find an accurate SURE 
     calculator for sugarcane to gain a better understanding of 
     the actual assistance that might be available to cane 
     farmers, but the poorly performing crop insurance program it 
     will be built upon would seem to reduce its effectiveness as 
     a hurricane assistance program.
       Congress has developed a disaster assistance mechanism that 
     works. In response to the 2002 hurricanes, Congress developed 
     a delivery mechanism for ad hoc assistance to

[[Page S9976]]

     sugarcane growers in Louisiana that is tailored to the types 
     and levels of damage associated with hurricanes and cane 
     fields.--The mechanism, as improved in the Emergency 
     Agricultural Disaster Assistance Act of 2006 (2006 Act), 
     targeted a portion of the overall package to address losses 
     and costs from planted cane that was lost to the hurricanes. 
     Another portion of the package was designated to offset some 
     of the increased planting costs and harvesting costs that we 
     incurred. A final portion was allocated to address yield 
     losses and other sector-wide losses. By apportioning the 
     package in this way, Congress was able to link the bulk of 
     the assistance directly to the specific losses or costs of 
     the hardest-hit producers, while reserving a portion to 
     address the yield losses that virtually every producer 
     absorbed. In the current instance, given the uncertainty 
     about the eventual losses, the delivery mechanism could be 
     further refined to allow for quick release of some funds to 
     address the plant-cane losses and the higher planting and 
     harvesting costs, while reserving funds to address the yield 
     losses that become clear later in the year.
       USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA) office in Louisiana, along 
     with FSA's Economic Policy Analysis division in Washington, 
     DC, have developed invaluable experience in operating this 
     program and could, if provided sufficient resources, move 
     expeditiously to implement such a program now.
       In conclusion, Louisiana has been growing sugarcane 
     commercially for well over 200 years. Our forbearers 
     harvested cane during the worst days of the Civil War and the 
     Great Depression. They survived the great flood of 1927 and 
     went back to fanning after the waters receded, just as I and 
     many of my friends have done twice in this decade. For the 
     record, Louisiana sugarcane growers have received 
     agricultural disaster assistance twice over our more than 200 
     years of production. The fact that both of those assistance 
     packages were made necessary by intense hurricanes in this 
     decade is a direct result of rampant coastal erosion. Unless 
     we Investment In energetic coastal restoration efforts soon, 
     my farm may be beachfront property in a few short years 
     before slipping quietly beneath the waves.
                                  ____


                Wallace R. Ellender III, Bourg, LA 70343


                               EXPERIENCE

       Ellender Farms, Inc., 1993-Present, president and farmer, 
     purchased family farm from my father, and increased it to 
     3200 acres. Manage an annual budget of 2 million dollars.
       Hope Farm, Inc., 1977-1993, farmer, farmed 1200 acres of 
     sugar cane with my father and brothers.
       American Sugar Cane League, 1977-Present, Chairman, 
     National Legislative Committee, 2006-Present, lobby for the 
     sugar industry, in process of writing sugar portion of the 
     Farm Bill, secured 40 million dollar disaster assistance to 
     Louisiana sugar industry. Representative, Barataria 
     Terrebonne National Estuary Program (BTNEP), 2001-Present, 
     liaison for sugar industry to assure healthy agricultural 
     practices in the wetlands. Vice-Chairman, National 
     Legislative Committee, 2004-2006, assisted with CAFTA 
     opposition, testified before the US Senate Ag Committee on 
     Farm Bill legislation. Dedicated Research Committee, 2003-
     2005, decided on the distribution of approximately \1/2\ 
     million dollars to various sugar cane research programs. 
     Strategic Planning & Re-organization Committee, 2003-2005, 
     reviewed and revamped the by-laws, implemented the 
     restructuring of the League. Search Committee 2004 & 2006, 
     assisted in the search for a new General Manager, assisted in 
     the search for and hiring of a new lobbyist for the League. 
     Nominating Committee, 2001-2002, made nominations for new 
     League Board members.
       National Agriculture Technical Advisory committee (ATAC), 
     2005-Present, participate in advising the USDA & the 
     Administration (USTR) on international trade policy regarding 
     sugar.
       First South Farm Credit, 2003-Present, Regional Director, 
     assist in the review of the quarterly cooperative reports and 
     make recommendations as needed.
       Vision Christian Center, 2005-Present, Men's Leader, teach 
     monthly Bible studies to men.
       Bourg Recreation Center Board of Directors, 1990-2003, 
     Chairman, 1994-1998, created the annual fiscal budget, made 
     financial and staffing decisions for the Center.
       Bayou Land YMCA Board of Directors, 1995-2001, President, 
     1998-2000, completed phase I of the basketball court.
       Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service 
     Committee, 1981-1990, approved conservation program 
     practices.


                               EDUCATION

       B.S. Agriculture Economics, Louisiana State University, 
     Baton Rouge, LA, 1977.
       LSU Ag. Leadership Program, Louisiana State University, 
     Baton Rouge, LA, 1996.
                                  ____


  Testimony by Jay Hardwick, Vice Chairman on Behalf of the National 
             Cotton Council Before the United States Senate

       The National Cotton Council is the central organization of 
     the United States cotton industry. Its members include 
     producers, ginners, cottonseed handlers, merchants, 
     cooperatives, warehousemen, and textile manufacturers. While 
     a majority of the industry is concentrated in 17 cotton-
     producing states stretching from the Carolinas to California, 
     the downstream manufacturers of cotton apparel and home 
     furnishings are located in virtually every state.
       The industry and its suppliers, together with the cotton 
     product manufacturers, account for more than 230,000 jobs in 
     the United States [U.S. Census of Agriculture]. Annual cotton 
     production is valued at more than $5.5 billion at the farm 
     gate, the point at which the producer sells his crop 
     [Economic Services, NCC]. In addition to the cotton fiber, 
     cottonseed products are used for livestock feed, and 
     cottonseed oil is used for food products ranging from 
     margarine to salad dressing. While cotton's farm-gate value 
     is significant, a more meaningful measure of cotton's value 
     to the U.S. economy is its overall economic impact. Taken 
     collectively, the annual economic activity generated by 
     cotton and its products in the U.S. is estimated to be in 
     excess of $120 billion [Economic Services, NCC].
       Mr. Chairman, I am Jay Hardwick from Newellton, LA, and I 
     currently serve as Vice Chairman of the National Cotton 
     Council. I am also a Director on the National Peanut Board, 
     Vice Chairman of Cotton Inc., past President of the Louisiana 
     Cotton Producers Association, Vice President of the Louisiana 
     Cotton Warehouse Association, Vice President of Newellton Gin 
     Co., a Director of Farm and Livestock Credit, Inc., member of 
     the Louisiana Black Bear Management Program, and a Director 
     of the Tensas Concordia Soil and Water Conservation District. 
     Our family-operated farm includes 7,300 acres of cotton, 
     corn, grain sorghum, peanuts, soybeans, and wheat in 
     Northeast Louisiana adjacent to the Mississippi River. Our 
     production mission is to achieve a viable and profitable farm 
     enterprise while providing a balance between habitat and 
     production resources with a minimum impact upon the farm 
     ecosystem. Emphasis is placed on conservation crop production 
     methods including no-till, crop rotation, residue 
     maintenance, erosion control and precision technologies to 
     apply and reduce pesticides and nutrient resources to help 
     restore and improve water, air, soil, wildlife habitat and 
     crop production economics. Plentiful fish, deer, turkey, 
     neotropical birds, migratory waterfowl, turtles, alligators, 
     black bears, and increased sightings of eagles and various 
     cat family members inhabit the property.
       Thank you for holding today's hearing and thank you for 
     allowing me to try to describe the devastating effects of 
     Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. Senator Landrieu, we sincerely 
     appreciated you taking time to tour some of the affected 
     areas last weekend.
       While my comments will focus on cotton, it is important to 
     point out that no crop was spared damage. During Gustav our 
     family farm received over 20 inches of rain and ruined or 
     damaged essentially all of our crops. Much of the Louisiana 
     cotton crop was at an extremely vulnerable stage of 
     production. Many of the bolls were open on the plants as we 
     are rapidly approaching harvest. Due to the extreme amounts 
     of wind and rain much of the cotton that is still attached to 
     the plants will not be harvestable due to rot or if harvested 
     the quality of both lint and cottonseed will be significantly 
     below normal.
       Extension specialists from Louisiana State University 
     estimate that revenue from the 2008 cotton crop will be 
     reduced by between $125 and $137 million--a 52-57 percent 
     decline in farm-gate value. Specialists also estimate that 
     over 80,000 acres of cotton will not be harvested. On the 
     remaining acres, yield losses will be dramatic. In many 
     parishes, crops that were expected to produce 3 bales per 
     acre are now projected to produce only 1 bale per acre. In 
     addition to the yield losses, the revenue from the harvested 
     cotton will be significantly less due to quality and grade 
     reductions.
       The impacts of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike are being felt far 
     beyond the farm gate. Agriculture's infrastructure suffered 
     physical damages due to the high winds and excessive 
     rainfall. The economic losses extend beyond the physical 
     damage as cotton gins, warehouses, and grain elevators rely 
     on volume moving through their operations to cover their 
     fixed costs and maintain their labor force. Unfortunately, 
     many of our gins and warehouses will process significantly 
     reduced volume or no volume at all in 2008.
       With some of the worst damage in history farmers will look 
     to crop insurance and the recently enacted permanent disaster 
     program for assistance. Unfortunately, for many cotton 
     farmers, the prospect of meaningful financial assistance from 
     these programs is uncertain at best. While almost all cotton 
     acres in Louisiana are insured at some level, more than half 
     of the state's acres (54 percent) are insured with only the 
     Catastrophic (CAT) level of coverage. This level of coverage 
     will provide minimal benefits and then only if the crop had 
     catastrophic losses. Some of the hardest hit parishes like 
     Catahoula and Concordia Parishes with over 37,000 acres of 
     cotton are only covered with CAT level policies. In addition, 
     the producers who purchased buy-up crop insurance did not 
     purchase the highest levels of coverage. Some may ask why so 
     many producers did not purchase higher levels of crop 
     insurance coverage. Historical experience has shown that in 
     most years the expected benefits do not outweigh the costs of 
     the higher coverage levels. Unfortunately, this year is not 
     typical of most years.
       I applaud the effort and foresight of Members of Congress 
     for including a permanent disaster provision in the recently 
     enacted farm bill. Unfortunately, I am concerned that the 
     program will not be able to meet in

[[Page S9977]]

     a timely manner the needs of farmers who have suffered 
     devastating losses this year. First, due to budget 
     constraints, the permanent disaster program was developed 
     with only a fraction of the funding compared to spending 
     under previous ad hoc disaster programs. Second, as currently 
     written, the disaster program guarantee is based on the level 
     of the farm's crop insurance coverage. This will do little to 
     help those acres with CAT coverage. And third, while USDA has 
     made excellent strides in implementing many of the provisions 
     of the new farm law, we have yet to see the details of the 
     permanent disaster provisions. It is also evident that the 
     data required to administer the whole-farm, revenue-based 
     disaster program will not be available for some time. This 
     means any financial assistance, in the absence of an advance 
     payment, can not be made available to farmers until the 
     latter half of 2009. That is simply too late for those that 
     have suffered losses.
       As you know, today's modern farming operations require 
     expensive inputs and investment. Input and technology costs 
     have escalated in 2008 with skyrocketing fuel and fertilizer 
     prices. We are experiencing these losses at the absolute 
     worst time because we incurred maximum costs of production as 
     the harvest approaches. We are now dealing both with the 
     impact of the lost revenue for this year's crops and trying 
     to finance next year's crops. Without timely assistance, many 
     Louisiana growers will be unable to settle this year's 
     outstanding debt or secure the necessary financing for next 
     year's crop. In short, without timely assistance, some 
     farmers will find themselves in a financial situation that 
     will make it difficult to continue farming.
       Louisiana is not the only state with losses due to 
     Hurricane Gustav. USDA data indicate that approximately 470 
     thousand acres of cotton were planted in South Texas in 2008. 
     USDA's preliminary estimates of harvested area imply 
     approximately 400,000 will be harvested, leaving 70,000 acres 
     abandoned. In southeast Arkansas, losses might run 25%, 
     according an initial estimate by the Extension Service. 
     Damage also is being reported in Mississippi, mainly in the 
     south and central Delta counties where the heaviest rains 
     fell and some fields flooded.
       The National Cotton Council recently joined with other 
     agricultural organizations in a letter to USDA's Risk 
     Management Agency requesting expedited appraisals for crop 
     insurance policy holders. This would help speed payments for 
     those covered by crop insurance. However, more needs to be 
     done. I encourage Congress to develop a plan that will 
     deliver financial assistance to producers in a timely manner. 
     Enhanced crop insurance coverage, timely ad hoc disaster 
     relief, supplemental payments delivered in the same manner as 
     direct payments, and enhancements to the provisions of the 
     permanent disaster programs should all be considered in order 
     to expedite assistance that is commensurate with the losses 
     that have been incurred. In addition, additional funding for 
     existing conservation program can be used as a means of 
     providing assistance for restoration of damaged fields. 
     Finally, I urge the Committee to consider providing some form 
     of financial assistance to gins, warehouses and other key 
     components of our infrastructure who will experience 
     significant financial losses due to sharply reduced volumes.
       Mr. Chairman, the economic losses caused by the hurricanes 
     are dramatic and severe, and immediate assistance is needed. 
     Many farmers simply do not have the financial resources to 
     wait until 2009 for assistance.
       Thank you for your consideration of our views and 
     recommendations and for giving me the opportunity to present 
     testimony.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader is recognized.

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