[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 149 (Tuesday, September 17, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5503-S5505]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Tariffs
Mr. TESTER. Mr. President, we all returned to Washington last week
after, in my case, spending 5 weeks in the State of Montana. It is
always great being in Montana, being able to get around the State and
visit with folks and see the challenges they are dealing with on a
daily basis and hear directly from them.
I can tell you that one of the things I heard a lot about--Montana is
an ag State--was the price of grain and the price of cattle. The
marketplace is very, very depressed. It doesn't matter that Montana is
a big State, and it doesn't matter what corner of the State you are in.
We have some challenges, and those challenges have been brought about
by really, really bad public policy when it comes to tariffs. These
tariffs have increased the price of steel, for example, which increases
the price of the equipment that folks in agriculture and everybody have
to buy.
On the other side of the coin, because of the tariffs that are put on
ag commodities, it has driven all ag commodities down. The tariffs on
soy, for example, have driven all the commodities down, including
wheat, which we raise
[[Page S5504]]
a lot of in Montana, but also pulse crops and everything.
In fact, when I was determining what we were going to plant this
spring, I was trying to find what we could make money off of. Quite
frankly, commodity prices are down across the board, and there wasn't
anything that you could turn a profit on. I don't say that being a
farmer who wants to complain about prices, because we do that
occasionally. I say that because the price of hard red ordinary winter
wheat, which probably doesn't mean much to anybody unless you are in
agriculture, is about the same price it was in about May of 1978, when
I took the farm over. That is not inflation-adjusted prices. That is
what it is selling for, a little over $3.50 a bushel.
If you take a look back at 1978, it doesn't take a nuclear physicist
to figure out that things cost a little less back then. You could buy a
car for probably about 15 percent of what you are paying for one now,
and farm equipment was the same way. It was far, far, far less
expensive. My dad bought a brand-new four-wheel drive tractor, for
example, 3 years earlier, in 1975. He paid about $20,000 for it, and
today that tractor would run you north of $200,000.
So we have a lot of challenges out there, and it all starts with the
price of ag commodities. It isn't like Mother Nature frowned on us all
and put us into a drought or put a hailstorm on us or put locusts on
us. It is all man-made.
I think most people in this body would tell you that, as to what is
going on with China right now, even though China does need to be held
accountable, we can't do it alone. We have to bring our allies in. That
is why it is not working, and that is why ag commodity prices are in
the tank.
So why should anybody care if you are not involved in agriculture?
There was an old bumper sticker that was on cars a few decades ago
that said: If you eat, you are involved in agriculture. That is a fact.
If you want to talk about things like food security and being able to
have food on the shelves, those family farmers are critically
important. If you force them out of business, that is more
consolidation, that is less people living in rural America, and that is
a problem, and it is less certainty with our food supply.
We feed the world for a good reason--because there are a lot of
family farmers out there who work very, very hard each and every day,
and we overproduce, and the overproduced items need to be exported. If
they are not, the prices go down. That is what we see right now. We see
overproduction, because we produce food, and if that food is not
exported, the prices go down, and they go down and they go down. Now
they are prices that we had 40 years ago.
Now, this administration's solution for this problem is to borrow
money from our kids and write farmers checks. I don't know a farmer out
there who wants to go down to the local FSA, or the Farm Service
Agency, government office and get a check. We do it, but that is not
the preferred place. The preferred place is from the grain elevator or
from the livestock auction. But because prices are so low, now farmers
have to have a bailout.
People talk about socialism and who is advocating for socialism
around here, but the fact is that this is pretty much socialistic. The
sad part is that the amount farmers are getting is probably about a
tenth, once again, of what they are losing in the marketplace, if we
had trade, if we were out promoting trade, and if we were moving the
ball forward to get rid of the excess production. But instead, it is
tariff after tariff after tariff because we are trying to teach
somebody a lesson. Unfortunately, because we don't have our allies
onboard with us, we haven't seen much success.
We have a problem. The forefathers set forth three coequal branches
of government. Unfortunately, I have been a bit frustrated because the
legislative branch hasn't been able to do much about these tariffs, and
we need to reinsert ourselves.
I have a bill that I intend to drop in very soon that will empower
the legislative branch. Hopefully, we can get it through committee and
get it to the floor. It seems that we always ask permission of the
administration as to whether we are going to take up any bills on the
floor in this body, the greatest deliberative body--it used to be; it
is not anymore--when, in fact, we need to take back the power. We need
to hold the administration, the executive branch--whether there is a
Democrat in the White House or a Republican in the White House--
accountable on these issues that revolve around trade.
It is important because we are having a debate right now about
whether we should be just a rubberstamp for the executive branch on
appropriations. We have given away our power on trade. It is our job to
deal with issues of trade. I am talking about Congress's job. I have a
bill to bring back some of that power.
I will tell you, I hope that tomorrow all these tariffs and trade
issues go away. I don't think that is realistic. In fact, I think we
have seen a lot of our foreign trading partners that were traditionally
our partners turn to other countries to get their products. I think
that is a problem long term and certainly a problem short term because
we are feeling it in the short term. When they start getting their ag
commodities from Australia and Argentina or some other country, it is
hard to get those customers back, even when the trade agreements have
been ratified.
I ask the executive branch to quit playing games with American
agriculture. I know that most of the farmers support the Trump
administration, but I am telling you, we saw a mass exodus off the
farms in the 1980s--the family farm agriculture--because of bad
policies, due in part to this town, and I am afraid we are going to see
that again. I have already seen it in my neighborhood, and I think it
is just the start.
It is time that we start to do what we do; that is, we need to export
some of this product.
The Farmers Union was in last week, and one of the people in the
Farmers Union, from the Montana group, said: What do we do about the
excess supply? Well, what we do with the excess supply is what we have
always done with the excess supply: We ship it out. We export it. And
when those exports dry up, we have wheat. We can't get rid of soy. Corn
is in a pinch. As I said earlier, all ag commodities are depressed.
While we sit here and talk about the important stuff that we talk
about, just know that the American farmer, the family farmer, is
hurting. I will tell you that one thing that made this country great is
family farm agriculture. If it gets consolidated, whether it is a
family who owns tens of thousands of acres or controls tens of
thousands of acres or whether it is a corporation, it is the same
thing. You have nobody living in rural America, and it impacts our food
security in this country. Quite frankly, it is very bad for democracy.
I invited the President to come to Montana to visit with the
producers so he could hear it from their mouths. I haven't gotten a
response. The bottom line is, he needs to know that rural America is
not New York City. It has challenges, and if we don't do our job and
get products exported, we are going to see it change, we are going to
see it dry up, and we are literally going to see it blow away. It is
not a step forward. It is not making this country great. In fact, it is
exactly the opposite.
I hope the President comes to Montana. I hope he visits with the
producers. He will find a friendly crowd. I think most of them voted
for him. He will be able to hear from the horse's mouth what is
happening with trade and hopefully get these trade tariffs and all the
things around trade that have been negative for family farm agriculture
put behind us. I think time is of the essence. It may be too late for a
lot of folks. We may see a lot of good operators no longer able to make
a living in agriculture. Time is of the essence.
With that, I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
[[Page S5505]]