[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 181 (Wednesday, November 13, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6524-S6525]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Agriculture

  Mr. President, on agriculture, a report issued yesterday by the 
Democratic minority on the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and 
Forestry shed new light on troubling disparities as to how the Trump 
administration has treated farmers through the Department of 
Agriculture's Market Facilitation Program.
  Farmers in need of Federal aid have leaned on this program to offset 
losses that have been caused by retaliatory foreign tariffs. In an 
industry in which margins are sometimes very thin, this support makes a 
real difference for struggling farmers across the country. Yet, rather 
than helping those farmers who are the most in need, the Trump 
administration, through this program, is picking winners and losers by 
using a flawed methodology to favor certain regions over others and 
wealthy agricultural conglomerates over small farmers.
  The whole idea of the program is to help small farmers throughout the 
Middle West, particularly those farmers with soybeans and corn and 
hogs. The bulk of the program went to five Southern States. Ninety-five 
percent of the top payments defined as $100 or more per acre all went 
to counties in Southern States. Where did the lowest payments go? They 
went to the counties in the Midwest even though the Midwest has 
suffered greater losses overall.
  Instead of coming up with a strategy to help smaller and less 
established farms, which are often more vulnerable during tough 
economic times, the Trump administration has doubled the payment caps 
for row crops while having left other caps in place. This will 
disproportionately funnel money to the largest farms in America while 
it will limit aid to smaller farms.
  Most concerning, however, is that our study shows the Trump 
administration has awarded tens of millions in purchase contracts to 
foreign-owned companies, including a large beef factory in Brazil. 
Instead of ensuring that aid goes to American farmers, the Trump 
administration has been handing millions of taxpayer dollars to foreign 
agribusinesses.
  This program was put together on the spur because the President was 
worried about political effects with, particularly, soybean farmers but 
with others, too, in the Middle West. Yet it was put together so 
poorly--in such a slipshod and unthought-out manner--that cotton 
farmers do the best of all even though their prices are not hurting the 
way soybean or corn or hog prices are.

[[Page S6525]]

  To my friends on the other side of the aisle, the fiscal 
conservatives, we need your voices.
  If this program were going to the urban areas or maybe to the poorer 
people, we would hear an outcry from certain Members on the other side, 
but our farmers need the help too. When you waste money on an ag 
program, the people who are hurt the most are our smaller and family 
farmers, particularly, in this case, in the Middle West.
  For years, my Republican friends in this Chamber accused the Obama 
administration--unfairly, in my mind--of picking winners and losers in 
the market. It was one of their favorite talking points. Here, we have 
the Trump administration literally picking winners and losers among 
American farmers. Sometimes the winners are not even American. 
Oftentimes, the losers are the small family farmers who need assistance 
the most.
  I am so glad that my Democrat colleagues on the Agriculture, 
Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, especially Ranking Member Stabenow, 
have worked to inject some transparency into the agriculture relief 
program.
  The Trump administration should be using the Market Facilitation 
Program to help those farmers most in need--period. The Trump 
administration needs to stop picking winners and losers and make sure 
all American farmers get the help they deserve.