[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 10854-10855]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       KANSAS FARMERS NEED RELIEF

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Kuhl of New York). Under a previous 
order of the House, the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Moran) is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MORAN of Kansas. Mr. Speaker, there is an occurrence and an 
occasion in Kansas that occurs each and every year. It is a very 
special time in our State. It is the harvest time for wheat. Of course, 
Kansas is known as the Wheat State. It is a time in which families, 
sons and daughters, return home to the family farm. There is a lot of 
work to be done, but there is a history, a culture, a tradition, a 
family time each and every year in which harvest is a special moment.
  But, Mr. Speaker, this year unfortunately is one of those times in 
which it appears that the Kansas wheat harvest and, in fact, the 
harvest across the Midwest is going to be less than what we would hope. 
In fact, the 2006 crop is expected to be the worst in the last 10 
years, and many yields are expected to be less than 50 percent of 
normal. This is a huge consequence to the economy of our State, to the 
Midwest, and really to the country.
  Rainfall has been about 28 percent of normal this year. In fact, 84 
of Kansas' 105 counties received no precipitation during the month of 
February when that wheat crop is attempting to grow. Of those remaining 
counties, the greatest amount of rainfall in those other counties was 
thirty one-hundredths of an inch for the month. This is the fifth and 
sixth years across many portions of our State and in Nebraska and 
eastern Colorado and Oklahoma and Texas and South Dakota and Wyoming in 
which drought has had serious consequences. In 2005, drought damage was 
also exacerbated by tornadoes and hailstorm and freeze. In 2005, every 
county but four in our State was declared a disaster county.
  Today we debated the emergency supplemental appropriations act. I am

[[Page 10855]]

very supportive of the efforts to bring disaster assistance to the 
farmers of the gulf coast and those affected by Hurricanes Katrina and 
Rita. But, Mr. Speaker, $500 million was included in that bill but 
directed only to those farmers and other producers who were in 
hurricane-affected counties.
  It is one thing, Mr. Speaker, for us to deny farmers across the 
country any assistance due to budget considerations, due to our desire 
to work toward balancing the budget; but it is not understandable in my 
State that we would pick and choose which farmers receive assistance 
based upon whether or not the event is a result of a hurricane. Those 
farmers who have had inadequate moisture in the Midwest for the last 5 
and 6 years are no less damaged than those farmers who were affected by 
the rains and the breaking of the levee and the saltwater in Louisiana, 
Alabama and Mississippi.
  I can explain to my constituents about the desire to hold the line on 
spending, but I can't explain to them why their problems are not 
addressed in this emergency supplemental but some other producers, some 
other farmers have been.
  And so, Mr. Speaker, I am hoping to set the stage tonight as we 
conclude the debate on the emergency supplemental, but as we work our 
way through the remainder of Congress to see that there is some level 
of disaster assistance provided to all farmers, regardless of the cause 
of their losses.
  Many in this body will say, but Congressman, isn't it crop 
insurance's duty to provide that kind of assistance? And isn't ad hoc 
disaster, isn't this disaster assistance package unnecessary?
  Well, Mr. Speaker, I chair the subcommittee responsible for crop 
insurance. The reality is that crop insurance policies insure about 50 
percent of the crop losses. The best policies cover 85 percent of the 
losses. And there is no insurance coverage for livestock. When you have 
5 and 6 years of disaster in which you are only being compensated for 
50 percent of your losses and you have paid the premiums for that 
coverage and your average return on equity as a farmer in our State is 
3.66 percent, you can't lose year after year after year and stay in 
business.
  The average age of a farmer in Kansas is 59 years old. Our farmers 
are reaching the conclusion that there is no future in agriculture, and 
that is not only detrimental to the communities of Kansas, to that 
individual farm family, but it is detrimental to the people of this 
country to lose agriculture as a way of life and as an economic driver 
of our economy.
  So we do need to work to improve crop insurance in our subcommittee. 
Our agriculture committee is working to do that. But the reality is the 
problem is with us today, and we are losing another generation of 
farmers. We will revisit the issue, I hope. 2005, which should be 
included in this year, is not in this bill; but 2006 may be even worse.
  Mr. Speaker, I look forward to working with my colleagues, the 
leadership of this House in an effort to make sure that farmers can 
survive into the future.

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