[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 22992]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      THE CROPS WERE IN THE FIELDS

  (Mr. POE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, when the relentless rain and howling winds of 
Hurricane Rita hit southeast Texas, the agriculture industry took a 
beating. Texas rice farmers were already having a tough year because of 
unpredictable weather, increased fuel and fertilizer costs, and the 
last thing they needed was a visit from the lady of the gulf. Rita's 
wrath ravaged rice fields and caused power outages in the mills where 
harvested rice was being dried. The crops in the field just weeks away 
from the second harvest took a beating.
  Bill Dishman, Jr., a rice farmer in my district, owns a farm in the 
small town of China, Texas. He figures about one-fourth or more of his 
second crop, that is the one rice farmers count on to make a profit, 
was lost. Almost every southeast Texas rice farmer suffered damages 
from this storm.
  Following the storm, I had the opportunity to travel to southeast 
Texas with Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns and assess the damage 
and speak to the local rice farmers. Their concerns were serious and 
their outlook was grim. Texas rice farmers like Bill Dishman and Ray 
Stoesser need to remain on their combines and the rice needs to grow 
more, and we need more markets like Cuba. These are tense and troubling 
times. The American rice farmer, Mr. Speaker, is becoming an endangered 
species.

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