[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 22211]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 22211]]

                       EMERGENCY FARM ASSISTANCE

  (Mr. HAYES asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, over the past several months, I have traveled 
my district, the 8th District of North Carolina, and spent dozens of 
hours listening to farmers and ranchers tell me about the state of the 
farm economy.
  In February, I, with the help of the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. 
Ewing) and the Committee on Agriculture, hosted a field hearing in 
Laurinburg to learn farmers' concern about the current crop insurance 
program and what changes they felt needed to be implemented to achieve 
meaningful reform.
  The Committee on Agriculture took the comments of my farmers and the 
comments from other farmers around the country and passed a bill which 
addresses their concerns and will strengthen crop insurance and provide 
better risk management tools for farmers and ranchers.
  Crop insurance is just one recent example of how the Committee on 
Agriculture takes a grass-roots approach in learning about a problem 
and then, with a bipartisan effort, efficiently works to solve it.
  Congress is once again being called upon to listen to what is going 
on in farm country and respond in a timely and effective manner. After 
hearing from my farmers, I introduced a bill last week, H.R. 2843, the 
Emergency Assistance for Farmers and Ranchers Act of 1999. In addition, 
I call on Members to help pass the emergency spending bill necessary 
for flooding and drought in crop areas this week.

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