[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Pages 21652-21653]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                            VOTE EXPLANATION

  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I would like to take this opportunity to 
explain my absence during yesterday's roll call vote on the nomination 
of Larry Hicks to be U.S. District Judge of the Nevada District. I do 
not dissent on Mr. Hick's nomination and if I had been present, I would 
have voted aye.
  Unfortunately I was absent during yesterday's rollcall vote because 
my attendance was necessary at a meeting to discuss the economic future 
of my home State of Montana. I discussed the State of Montana's timber 
industry with Plum Creek Timber Co., the largest wood products business 
in Montana. To be specific, we discussed what tools are necessary to 
ensure that business in Montana survives our Nation's current economic 
downturn.
  The future of a specific industry in my State brings me to a larger 
point, the economic state of rural America

[[Page 21653]]

after September 11, 2001. Much attention has been paid, as it should, 
to the economic effect of the terrorist attacks on our major centers of 
commerce. Primarily America's largest cities and the coasts. However, 
the impact has been felt equally as hard in rural America where the 
economy was already slowing.
  In addition to the wood products industry, agricultural commodities 
which are the lifeblood of Montana and rural America are hurting worse 
then ever before. The past 3 years have been disastrous due to drought. 
Now Montana's farmers are faced with sharply escalating operating costs 
due to higher energy and fertilizer prices. According to the most 
recent projections provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 
total farm expenses are expected to rise again this year, right on the 
heels of a $10 billion increase last year.
  As costs spiral out of control, farm income has not kept pace. Last 
year net farm business income was at a decade low according to USDA. 
Unless Government assistance is continued, net farm income in 2001 is 
projected to be even lower.
  The downturn in rural America is especially calamitous because 
prolonged economic depression often means extinction for these rural 
communities. A few bad years forces everyone out of business, not just 
those that sell commodities for a living. The very people and places 
that make up the fabric of the American economy are forced to seek 
opportunity elsewhere. This is a price that I am not willing to pay.
  As we consider economic recovery measures we cannot forget rural 
America. We must not let the immediate damage that we see every night 
on the evening news blind us to the crisis that is happening in rural 
communities across America. We simply do not have a choice. The cost is 
simply too high.

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