To amend the Agricultural Adjustment Act to remove the requirement that processors be members of an agency administering a marketing order applicable to pears.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the ranking member of the committee and the committee chairman and subcommittee chairman for their work on this legislation. I want to thank the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Hastings), the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Nethercutt) and the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Larsen) for joining me as cosponsors of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I represent pear country in the northwest, at least in the State of Oregon. In the great Hood River Valley and down in the Jackson Road Valley, Jackson County and elsewhere across my district, they grow tremendous, tasty pears, many of which find their way into special packages from Harry and David, among other companies.

Our pear growers are trying to be innovative in terms of how they market their products. Many individual growers now are growing organic fruit, and many are taking it upon themselves to market their own products to the public, as opposed to necessarily going through big processors, although, obviously, the bulk of the fruit still is dealt with that way. But they are looking for new ways to bring value added to their products.

The industry, therefore, is seeking to consolidate their promotional activity under a single Federal marketing order, and the current statute requires that any marketing order that assesses processing pears must have equal representation from producers and processors on its governing board, and yet the processors pay nothing into this process.

So, as a result, they have come to us, the processors and the growers, and said, ``You know, why don't you change this law and let us go ahead and streamline how we operate.''

So this legislation does that. It removes the existing processor membership requirement, and the processors all support that. The change will pave the way for consolidation and allow producers alone to dictate how their funds will be used in pear promotional activities.

The pear industry is united behind this. Each of the Pacific Northwest pear processors have expressed support for the changes. The Oregon, Washington and California State marketing commissions support it. Both Federal marketing orders are in support. The Pacific Northwest Canned Pear Service, the nonprofit voluntary marketing board of the Northwest canned pear industry, supports it. And the Washington-Oregon Canning Pear Association, the nonprofit bargaining association, all support H.R. 2984.

So, Mr. Speaker, I encourage the approval of this legislation. I look forward to having this written into law and having our pear industry be able to be more competitive in its promotional activities.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support passage of this legislation to remove the Agricultural Adjustment Act requirement that processors be members of an agency administering a marketing order on pears.

I want to thank my friend and colleague from Oregon, Mr. Walden, for his hard work on behalf of the NW pear industry.

My Congressional district produces 44 percent of the nation's pears, and Washington State is the top pear producing state in the nation. The pear growers I represent and their fellow pear growers throughout the Pacific Northwest are working hard to meet the challenges of foreign competition and changing consumer tastes, and industry marketing organizations are a vital part of this effort. However, Northwest pear growers are operating under an unnecessarily complicated arrangement involving two federal marketing orders and two state commodity commissions. The industry would like to streamline its grade standards and marketing efforts by moving to a single federal marketing order.

Moving from four organizations doing the same job to one seems like common sense to me, but there is a problem. Current federal statute requires that any marketing order that covers pears for processing must have equal representation from producers and processors on its governing board. Keep in mind that it is producers, not processors, that pay the assessments and are subject to the marketing orders' quality standards. For this reason a requirement that processors have equal representation is unreasonable and is a barrier to the industry's plan to consolidate its organizations.

This legislation will simply remove the requirement that the number of producer and processor representatives be equal. If passed, our bill would allow the Northwest pear industry to establish a single federal marketing order that does not give disproportionate influence to one segment of the industry.

This legislation is supported by the Pacific Northwest pear industry, and the processors themselves do not oppose the removal of this provision.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to assume the responsibility of floor management on this and subsequent pieces of legislation for the ranking member, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm). He, at this moment, is appearing before the House Committee on Rules in support of an amendment to be considered tomorrow advancing disaster relief for America's farmers.

The amendment of the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm), which I have cosponsored and strongly support, would represent a commitment by this House similar to that made by the Senate, a roughly $3 billion commitment in support of farmers who have had disastrous results this growing season in light of weather circumstances not anticipated and not normal and truly of a disastrous magnitude.

We stand prepared and will help those victims of the Florida hurricanes. We also have to recognize that, when it comes to production of agriculture, there are a lot of other types of disasters that have wreaked havoc right across this country, and that is the reason that the legislation that the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm) is moving forward, supported by both Republican and Democratic Members of this body representing agriculture production areas, is so critically important.

I certainly hope that the ranking member is successful in his efforts to have an amendment made in order that will allow consideration of the disaster relief. We believe and we believe strongly that the disaster relief that passed the Senate is the disaster relief that our farmers need and deserve. We believe anything short of that would be an abdication by this House in meeting the needs of farmers. That is why we feel so strongly about it that the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm) actually left the floor management to go

to rules and make the case for this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time on the legislation before us, and, on behalf of the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm), I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the

bill (H.R. 2984) to amend the Agricultural Adjustment Act to remove the requirement that processors be members of an agency administering a marketing order applicable to pears.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself of such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2984, introduced by the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Walden). This legislation removes the requirement that processors be members of an agency administering a marketing order applicable to pears.

The pear industry has been working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to consolidate the various pear marketing orders. Current statute requires that any marketing order that assesses processing pears must have equal representation from producers and processors on its governing board. This statute is a barrier to the industry's consolidation plan and would unjustly grant processors, who do not pay in the Federal marketing orders, a role in directing activities funded with producer dollars.

H.R. 2984 would allow producers alone to dictate how their funds will be used in pear promotion activities. The pear industry, from producers to processors, is united in their support of this bill.

I want to applaud its gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Walden) for his work in bringing forth commonsense legislation that is wholeheartedly supported by the pear industry. I appreciate his leadership on behalf of his constituents. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 2984.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Walden), the author of the legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2984. Current statute requires any marketing order that assesses processing pears must have equal representation from producers and processors on its governing board. This statute is a barrier to the industry's consolidation plan and would unjustly grant processors, who do not pay into Federal marketing orders, a role in directing activities funded with producer dollars.

The Pacific Northwest pear industry is seeking to consolidate promotional activity under a single Federal marketing order for fresh pears and processing pears that will be funded, operated and managed by pear producers.

H.R. 2984 would remove the existing processor membership requirement, allowing the industry to establish a single producer-funded-and- operated Federal marketing order. This change will pave the way for consolidation and allow producers alone to determine how their funds will be used in pear promotion activities.

The pear industry is unified in support of the proposed changes made in H.R. 2984, and I encourage members to support this measure.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the gentleman from North Dakota (Mr. Pomeroy) be allowed to manage the balance of my time.