[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 4680]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    CHALLENGES FACING RURAL AMERICA

  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, I appreciate the opportunity to 
address the House this evening in regard to our responsibility as 
Members of this body to listen to our constituents. It is important 
that once we listen, that we bring that message back to Washington, to 
our colleagues here on the House Floor, and to the administration down 
the street.
  Mr. Speaker, within the last few weeks I completed my 66th town hall 
meeting, one in each county of the First Congressional District of 
Kansas. Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, there are many challenges that 
rural America faces as we try to survive today, have a little 
prosperity, and move our people and our communities to the future.
  The issues across my State and across rural America continue to be 
serious; issues related to agriculture. This is another year, Mr. 
Speaker, in which farm commodity prices remain low. In addition to 
that, we have, in many places in the country, and including most of 
Kansas, a very severe drought.
  So on top of low commodity prices, our farmers face the prospect of 
poor production. Absent snow falls this winter, absent rainfalls this 
spring, our ability to put a product into the bin at any price has 
become very difficult.
  Our circumstances in agriculture are bleak, remain bleak, and they 
are the backbone for the economy of places like Kansas, and it is 
important that we continue our efforts in regard to farm legislation. 
Our conferees, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm), the ranking 
member, and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Combest), the chairman of the 
House Committee on Agriculture, continue in almost 24-hour-a-day 
sessions attempting to negotiate a farm bill. It is important that this 
work proceed. It is important that there be a return financially to the 
farmers and ranchers of this country.
  Our farmers are concerned not only about farm policy, but about the 
desire for competition within the agribusiness world, the entities 
which they buy from and sell to, and certainly a desire for open 
markets, the ability to export their agriculture commodities around the 
world.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I hope to raise the awareness of my colleagues from 
places outside the farm belt of the importance of farm policy, the 
importance of agriculture and consumption, and the importance of having 
competition within the agricultural arena.
  We look forward to meeting the country's energy needs with 
agriculture, and certainly the opportunities for biodiesel and ethanol 
remain an important opportunity for our farmers across the grain belt 
of our country. But in addition to agriculture, we have concerns with 
our hospitals. Medicare has become a huge factor in whether or not 
hospital doors remain open, whether or not there are physicians in our 
communities, and we need to continue to find ways that we can reimburse 
our health care providers in rural America who are 60, 70, 80 and even 
90 percent of the patients that those hospitals treat and that are seen 
by our physicians are Medicare recipients.
  In addition, we have issues related to small businesses. How do we 
keep our businesses on Main Street? Clearly, the tax burden, the rules 
and regulations that we in Congress and those in administrations, 
current and past, have placed upon our business community have a huge 
impact. We do not have more customers everyday who move to our 
communities for our businesses to sell to, to spread those increasing 
costs among. So we in Congress have an obligation to oversight, to 
reign in those rules and regulations that lack common sense and that 
are not based upon science, because the end result of failing to do so 
means that the business community in rural America suffers.
  It is also important for us to have adequate transportation, to make 
certain that our railroads, our highways, our airports and aviation are 
functioning, that people who live in rural America have access to the 
rest of the world. Of course we have concerns about the consequences of 
losing passenger train service across long distances of our country. I 
look forward to working with my colleagues in that regard.
  Finally, I would say education and technology are important to rural 
America. We need to do our part to make certain that our Federal 
mandates are paid for. The consequences of our failure to pay for IDEA 
has a huge effect upon those who try to finance local school districts 
through the property tax levy.
  So we have our work cut out for us as we look at educational issues 
to make sure that what we require, we pay for. It is important for us 
to make certain that the rural communities and the people who live 
there are not left behind as the rest of the world accesses technology. 
It is important to us to have fiberoptics and Internet and broadband 
services; things that used to have to be done in the city can now be 
done in rural places across the country.
  So despite all of our challenges, we know what the issues are. We 
must work together, rural and urban America, to try to make a 
difference in the lives of all Americans. But I will tell my colleagues 
that despite the problems in 66 counties during the last few weeks, I 
remain optimistic because the people are there to make a difference.

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