[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Page 23304]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          DISASTER ASSISTANCE

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, today is a day that has taken too long to 
come. But it is a day of victory for hard-pressed farmers and ranchers 
who have been devastated by various natural disasters around the 
Nation. Today, we have approved $2.9 billion in emergency relief for 
family farmers and ranchers across America.
  From Florida to Washington State, all along the eastern seaboard and 
into the Midwest and upper Midwest, farmers and ranchers have faced 
circumstances beyond their control.
  In my State of South Dakota, we have seen 5 years of drought. Farmers 
have gone out of business and ranchers have sold entire herds. This is 
not just an issue for farmers and ranch families alone, it is an issue 
for the rural communities in which they live as well.
  In a State like mine, whose primary industry is agriculture, weather-
related disasters are truly economic disasters for the entire State's 
population. That is why many of us have been fighting for adequate 
disaster assistance for so long.
  When we passed the farm bill in 2002, a bill that I am very proud to 
have been a part of, we added a new program, the Counter-Cyclical 
Program. It only provides assistance to producers when prices are low. 
In fact, this program has now saved $15 billion just in the last 2 
years.
  We said at the time we would not need any economic disaster 
assistance, and we have not. But we will need weather-related disaster 
assistance. That is something that the administration has failed to 
acknowledge. In fact, in 2002, in the middle of the worst drought since 
the Dust Bowl year of 1936, the President came to our State and told 
farmers and ranchers to tighten their belts, that they were not going 
to get any disaster assistance. That statement stunned many of us who 
had witnessed firsthand the devastation that the drought had caused for 
farm and ranch families and the communities in which they live. As the 
drought persisted in 2003, we still had no opportunity for help.
  Finally, in difficult negotiations over the last several weeks and 
with bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate, we have 
managed to craft disaster assistance that will go to the President for 
his signature. So today the Congress is now approving the $2.9 billion 
in agriculture disaster assistance. That is the good news. It is a win 
for farmers and ranchers, and it will allow many of them to stay on the 
land and continue their businesses and continue a rural way of life. 
This bill will provide payment for farmers who have lost over 35 
percent of their historic yields and livestock producers who have lost 
over 40 percent of their available grazing land.
  I thank Congressman Charlie Stenholm. We would not have any disaster 
aid without his leadership in the House. I thank my colleagues in the 
Senate, especially Senator Baucus, who led a bipartisan group of 
Senators, all of whom supported disaster aid and worked to pass this 
important legislation.
  I also thank Senator Harkin for his passionate support for the 
recognition that this aid ought to be declared an emergency like all 
other forms of assistance that we have passed for other parts of the 
country.
  America's family farmers and ranchers do not just produce 
commodities, they produce communities. They are an important part of 
our national identity. They reflect our national values. For too long, 
they have been suffering, not because they made bad decisions but 
because of bad weather. We cannot do anything about the weather, but we 
can take steps to help family farmers and ranchers weather this crisis.
  So I am proud of what we have been able to do today, and I hope the 
USDA will immediately begin the process of distributing this much 
needed assistance to farmers and ranchers across the Nation.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona.

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