[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16076-16077]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          MIDWEST FARMERS AND RANCHERS FACE DIRE CIRCUMSTANCES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Moran) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MORAN of Kansas. Mr. Speaker, times are often tough in the high 
plains of our country, and Kansas farmers and ranchers struggle every 
year to make ends meet, but this year is especially difficult, and I 
want to bring to the attention of my colleagues here in the House 
tonight and the citizens of our country the difficult circumstances 
that those farmers and ranchers face this year because of very little 
snowfall, no rainfall this spring, and this being the second and third 
and sometimes even fourth year in a row in which moisture has been 
lacking for farmers to farm and ranchers to raise their cattle.
  I just completed 25 town visits throughout the month of August across 
the First District of Kansas and saw the worry and concern upon 
farmers' faces. Every day our farmers look to the skies and hope and 
pray for rain.

                              {time}  1930

  Communities gather every evening in the community band shell where 
they come together and as a community pray that rain will fall. The 
circumstances that our agriculture producers face and the communities 
in which they live is desperate. We have ranchers selling their cattle 
every week. Our herds are being culled. We had almost no wheat harvest 
in many places in Kansas; and in fact statewide wheat harvest was down 
almost half of what it was last year, and last year was a very bleak 
year in and of itself. The fall crops, the milo, our fall crops have 
failed, almost no fall crops produced in Kansas because of lack of 
moisture. Here in a couple of weeks our farmers will try to begin the 
process of planting wheat, and yet no rain comes. There is no moisture 
in the surface, no subsoil moisture for those seeds to germinate. In 
addition, our cattle are struggling because there is no water in the 
ponds and no grass to feed.
  So I think it is important for those of us who care about the future 
of rural America, those of us who care about the livelihood of our 
farmers and ranchers, to bring to our colleagues in Congress the 
circumstances that we face. Almost every year that I have been in 
Congress, 6 now, we have had an emergency assistance package designed 
to help those who face natural disasters, those who struggle as a 
result of hurricanes and floods. I am here to tell my colleagues that 
the circumstances that farmers and ranchers face in Kansas and Nebraska 
and Colorado and Wyoming and South Dakota and Oklahoma are no less dire 
than those that our citizens have faced in other places in the country 
due to floods and hurricanes.
  I ask my colleagues to join with us to find a way to provide 
assistance, to pursue drought assistance and disaster relief for 
farmers and ranchers across the country and to look for ways that we 
can do so in a way that is responsible and meaningful. I look forward 
to working with my colleagues on the House Committee on Agriculture and 
my colleagues across the country and with the administration and Senate 
to see that those goals are accomplished. No less than the future of 
rural America is at stake. Many of the farmers and ranchers in Kansas 
are in their sixties and seventies; and absent assistance from Congress 
this year, they will not be farming and ranching next year. Absent them 
having a livelihood, the communities that dot the landscape of our 
rural portions of the country will cease to exist and a way of life 
that has honored this country, that has been a backbone of this 
country, will disappear.
  So I ask respectfully my colleagues for their assistance as we pursue 
the issues of drought assistance. The gentleman from South Dakota (Mr.

[[Page 16077]]

Thune), the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Osborne), and I have 
introduced legislation; and we will be seeking support of our 
colleagues to address this issue.

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