[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 110 (Thursday, June 24, 2021)]
[House]
[Page H3087]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 KANSAS IS THE BREADBASKET OF THE WORLD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Kansas (Mr. Mann) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MANN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Kansas farmers for 
their long hours during this year's wheat harvest and for their work to 
produce food for people all over the world.
  With more than 15,000 wheat farms across the State and 5 million 
acres of wheat in the Big First District alone, Kansas leads the Nation 
in wheat production, is the largest exporter of hard red winter wheat, 
and is aptly named the breadbasket of the world.
  The United States exports that wheat to more than 100 countries 
around the world, and some of that wheat from Kansas ends up abroad 
under the U.S. food assistance programs, like Food for Peace. In fact, 
it was the Kansas Farm Bureau who began sending surplus grain to those 
in need around the world, continuing U.S. leadership in addressing 
world hunger.
  As I reflect on my own time on our family farm in Quinter, Kansas, I 
am reminded that harvest season is about more than just harvesting the 
crop. For Kansas farm families and communities, harvest is about coming 
together.
  Harvest is when we share tractors and other equipment with our 
neighbor when theirs gets stuck. Harvest is when a grandmother takes 
food to the field so the rest of her family doesn't have to leave the 
field for a lunch break. It is when a father takes his child out on the 
combine to show him how the work is done. And it is when we reflect on 
our advancements in agriculture, thanks to land-grant universities, 
like the wheat breeding research at Kansas State University, yielding 
high-quality and plentiful harvests around the world.
  Wheat harvest is a time for Kansas to be proud of the great strides 
they take to feed, fuel, and clothe the world. At the end of the 
season, we look back and know that each agricultural success is 
inexplicably tied to our Kansas values of faith, family, community, and 
grit. While we are at work here in Washington, they are back at home 
making the world go round, and for that we owe farmers our sincerest 
thank you.


                   The Right to Life is Self-Evident

  Mr. MANN. Mr. Speaker, I also rise today in support of one of the 
most basic functions of any government, the right to life.
  Our Founding Fathers wrote 245 years ago, ``We hold these truths to 
be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed 
by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.''
  To them, the right to life was so overly obvious that they called it 
self-evident.
  But, today, in America, some policymakers insist on denying the right 
to life to millions of Americans. Instead, they diminish that right 
through murderous abortion policies, policies that fail to recognize 
life until a child lets out his or her first cry in the delivery room, 
policies that justify abortion based on the belief that any unborn 
child may have Down syndrome, and policies that funnel taxpayer dollars 
to funding abortions and abortion services.
  Today's technology and science has shown us proof of life inside the 
womb. We see 3D ultrasounds of a baby sucking her thumb and moving 
around. We know unborn babies can experience pain as early as 12 weeks. 
At 20 weeks, we can reveal if a baby is a boy or a girl.
  Yet some of our country's leaders still proceed to support policies 
that devalue and eliminate the innocent child's life. For decades, 
these elected officials have spent more time protecting the right of 
potentially endangered species, like the lesser prairie-chicken or sea 
turtle eggs, than they do protecting unborn babies, human babies.

  But not to me. I strongly believe life begins at conception. I 
believe every life matters. I support adoptions, foster care, and 
crisis pregnancy centers that work tirelessly to care for mothers and 
their babies. I have cosponsored pro-life legislation, including H.R. 
18, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, permanently prohibiting 
Federal funding for abortions and abortion services. I even introduced 
my own, H.R. 714, which would require the executive branch to notify 
Congress and the American public before issuing any new executive order 
pertaining to pro-life provisions and the right to life guaranteed by 
the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
  Devaluing the life of unborn children has desensitized our Nation, 
and I pray we soon wake up and realize the horrors it has done. It is 
time to stop using taxpayer dollars to fund abortion services and focus 
on lifesaving resources that value the life of both the mother and the 
child. The right to life is self-evident, and I will fight to protect 
it at all costs.

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