Mr. President, I wish to proceed to the hour that I have asked the leader to set aside for the purpose of discussing, in my view, a grave oversight that can be corrected if there is enough political will to do so. So the purpose of this…
Mr. President, I wish to proceed to the hour that I have asked the leader to set aside for the purpose of discussing, in my view, a grave oversight that can be corrected if there is enough political will to do so. So the purpose of this hour is to try to lay out a case so that we can build, over the course of the next few days and weeks, the will necessary to take action that if not taken could literally result in the bankruptcy of thousands of people and individuals in rural communities throughout Louisiana and the Nation who, through no fault of their own, have been caught up in the disasters of the last few weeks and months.
The disasters I speak of are not like the manmade disaster that is happening on Wall Street as we speak. It is not the purpose for which a group of Senators, both Republicans and Democrats, have been meeting around the clock for hours. They are disasters of nature's making-- hurricanes, strong winds, and heavy rains that no one could prevent, but we most certainly can stop the economic downturn in the aftermath that will occur.
I am here today because it looks to me and several of my colleagues as though this Congress intends to leave without taking any action whatsoever, to give even hope to people, thousands of hard-working taxpayers who are in this situation.
I will speak for an hour, but this cartoon says it all. This was in the USA TODAY newspaper yesterday. I don't think it needs any explanation. I represent the lower ninth ward. I am proud to represent the ninth ward and the lower ninth ward. I also represent St. Bernard Parish and Plaquemines Parish and Terrebonne Parish and others that were devastated and basically have been abandoned in large measure by aspects of this Government that did not come to their aid. This cartoon says we have been building a levee for the last several weeks--or trying to build a levee--around Wall Street. Meanwhile, the rest of the country--whatever.
Out there in the rest of the country--whatever--which is what I represent--are thousands of farmers. This is what their fields look like. They are completely underwater, not because they left the hose on too long or failed to do the proper irrigation techniques but because we had Hurricane Gustav, Hurricane Ike, and Hurricane Fay, which did not hit just Florida, but that storm, as the Presiding Officer will remember, dropped significant rains throughout large parts of the country right before harvest time. Then, a few weeks later--because the farmers in many districts who watch the weather, of course, every day, made the decision to wait until these rains were done, they would then go into their fields and harvest the thousands of acres that were planted in Louisiana in cotton, soybean, rice, sugarcane, sweet potatoes, and our beautiful pecan trees. They would wait until those rains subsided and then they would go to their fields for the harvest that they were expecting to be quite spectacular despite price inputs at the front of the season: high fuel and fertilizer costs. But then Hurricane Ike came and Hurricane Gustav, and the water just never went away. There was nowhere for it to go.
The State I represent, as people will know their geography, is the State that basically drains, through the Mississippi River, the Arkansas, the Missouri River, comes down through the Mississippi River to Louisiana. There was simply nowhere for the water to go. It broke levees everywhere. The
levees in New Orleans held because of the work I have been, in large measure, fighting for with others to help build. But levees have broken all over Louisiana, including Federal levees and non-Federal levees. We are a strong State but not always strong enough to hold in the water from the whole Nation. Although we have tried on many occasions to build the kind of levee system we need, we are 20 or 30 years behind.
I got here 12 years ago and have worked every day to accelerate that, and I am going to stay here for as long as it takes to get the job done. Nonetheless, we are not there yet.
So the water came into these fields. The farmers cannot harvest their crops. They cannot get into the fields to try to save what is left. This is a farmer who has farmed profitably with his family for probably over 50 years. He is from Chaneyville. This is what the rice fields look like if you grow rice in water, but it can't grow in salt water. So the salt water and the tidal surge came in, ruining the rice crop. Then, the cotton crop, which looked so beautiful just a couple of weeks ago--8 weeks ago--the farmers throughout the South were celebrating what a beautiful crop they may have. It has been a very tough year, as the Presiding Officer knows, with high fuel prices and the financial markets being unsettled, which has not just been going on the last few weeks. Farmers have had their eyes on that. Many of them are leveraged, as we know, quite a bit to try to produce safety the food that every single person in this country needs. But the cotton crop as it is now, thousands and thousands of acres, are absolutely unharvestable because of these rains.
This Congress, Democrats and Republicans, is about ready to leave, having done nothing--nothing--not even a lifeline, not even a telegraph, not even a message to say: We hear you.
Right now everyone is--many people--downstairs in a room talking about how we can build a levee around Wall Street. I understand that something has to be done about the financial situation. I am not sure I am in a position to be able to say exactly what should happen. But I can tell my colleagues that while everybody has been meeting for weeks about building a levee on Wall Street, the levees have already broken at home. They have already broken at home; not just in Louisiana but in Texas and in Arkansas and in Missouri and in Kansas and throughout the heartland. People who never even heard about a subprime loan, never, ever looked at an application for a subprime loan, never went to a bank to inquire about a subprime loan, and most certainly never knowingly bought one, their levees have already broken.
Now, I would not have kept my colleagues here. I am known up here as tenacious but a team player. I fight hard, but I fight fair. I most certainly would not have asked 100 Members, for whom I have the greatest respect and with whom it has been my honor to work with, each of them, to have great difficulty in their plans for the weekend. I understand one-third are up for reelection. There are Senators who came to me to say they have taken the first--tried to take the first vacation with their child in 6 months. Other Senators have said they have had these plans. I understand that. I have two young children at home myself. But I could not leave without at least making a 1-hour pitch--and I am going to be here after the vote for several hours. I asked to speak for 1 hour before this vote because I wanted to be able to lay this case down. But I will be here for the rest of the day speaking about this and through the evening if the Senate stays in. As long as the Senate is in, I am prepared to be here because this is not a 1-hour grandstanding on my part. Please believe me. This is about my complete inability to understand how this Congress could pass four major appropriations bills--Defense, Homeland Security, the stimulus package, and--not the stimulus package--the disaster relief package, and the continuing resolution and fail to recognize that the program we established in good intentions and with goodwill is not even in existence yet to help these farmers.
I wish to read from the terrific statement that our commissioner from Louisiana, Mike Strain, who has been leading this effort--not only for us but nationally--I wish to say something so people understand how strongly I feel about this issue.
Mike Strain is not a Democrat; he is a Republican. I actually didn't even support him in his election. I supported someone else. But he is the agriculture commissioner now, and it is my job to stand with him and to do what I can to help our rural communities. So I asked him to testify before the committee that I chair this week to try to get something on the record in Congress to help.
This is what our commissioner says, who is, by the way, a farmer himself. He is a veterinarian. He is very knowledgeable. He is a tenacious fighter. He came up and has spent days here trying to sound the alarm. He says:
Louisiana agriculture faces unprecedented losses from
Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. This is the largest natural
disaster affecting agriculture, aquaculture, forestry, and
fisheries in Louisiana history.
Now, that statement did get my attention. I have only been here 12 years, but for a commissioner who is knowledgeable, who is trained, who has been in the business, who has been elected by the people of my State, to make such a statement before a committee, I thought it might be worth it to bring that statement to the full floor of the Senate. He goes on:
No parish or commodity was spared by these storms. From the
cattle rancher and the oyster fisherman in the southernmost
tip of Plaquemines Parish, to cotton farmers in the delta of
East Carol Parish all were severely impacted. Combined with
the timing of these storms, just prior to harvest, and the
devastation caused by the wind (110 miles per hour), in
Terrebonne Parish, the flooding (24 inches), in Franklin
Parish, and the tidal surge (12 feet) in Cameron Parish, our
agriculture community is in peril.
He has held 11 meetings across the State with farmers and ranchers. I have been to several of them with him. There are several reasons our situation is so grave: One, the inadequacy of the crop insurance program we have in place, but the regulations aren't written yet, and there is no availability for our farmers to access; insufficient disaster provisions of the farm bill, which I just described; farmers who have contracts with elevators and cannot deliver the commodity; bank liens against partially filled commodity contracts; and deterioration of rain and cotton quality, which I have demonstrated with my pictures earlier.
I wish to go on to read his statement to explain these in some detail:
Higher input cost--Fuel and fertilizer costs have more than
doubled since the start of the current crop.
I don't know what the prices are in the Presiding Officer's State, but in the last year, gasoline prices and diesel prices have been on the rise. As the Presiding Officer knows, several of us have been in negotiations on bills trying to contain those costs. We have not yet been successful. But the price of gasoline and diesel over the last 12 to 15 months has doubled. Fertilizer prices have gone up 300 percent, and potash, which is a commonly used substance for our agriculture base, the farmers were faced with almost a 600-percent increase with no explanation. So their input costs were higher this year than almost any previous year. That is how the year started. Yet farmers absorbed it. They got their crops in the field and were ready for a good harvest, but that was a problem on the front end.
Many farmers did not borrow enough money to cover these exorbitant costs. Some of them were totally unexpected. They used all their available credit. Since the storms occurred just prior to harvest, as I said, many of the farmers have incurred all the costs of the crop except harvesting and now will not be able to repay lenders and suppliers.
I wish to say, they will not be able to repay lenders and suppliers. That is what the Wall Street bailout is all about. People unable-- banks, holding companies, financiers unable to meet their debts, and this Congress could not scramble fast enough to try to build them a levee. But to the farmers who can't pay their notes: You are on your own.
He goes on to explain the inadequacy of the crop insurance program:
The farm bill was signed late. Had producers known they
would have had a disaster program included that was based on
their crop insurance coverage levels, they may have made
different coverage decisions. But in order to be eligible for
the SURE program--
Which is the new program--
USDA requires farmers to purchase catastrophic insurance or
to participate in the noninsured assistance program. Due to
thin margins and high costs of buyout coverage levels, crop
insurance protection participation is relatively low in
Louisiana and other southern States.
It is not that we don't want insurance. It is not that we don't believe in insurance. But the insurance programs that have been crafted by this Congress do not meet the needs of southern farmers. Every region of the country is very different, and the crop insurance programs that exist today have never been adequate for southern farmers.
Although a farmer may have only harvested a portion of his
crop, he may have already surpassed the yield threshold. A
cotton farmer reported to me that he met with his insurance
agent and based on preliminary calculations, even though he
has more than 1,000 acres of cotton and is facing a 50
percent crop loss, he will only receive only $3,300 in
insurance proceeds.
Mr. President, $3,300 is not going to keep the farming community in this farmer's hometown moving forward in a strong position.
The disaster provisions of the farm bill--I wish to read from his testimony and why it is inadequate:
Many of our crops will not qualify for assistance under the
current disaster provisions. All of the rules and regulations
of the new 2008 Farm Bill had not been written.
I repeat that for the record. The opponents of what I am trying to do--and they are unidentifiable by name, but obviously there is some opposition or we would have been able to get this amendment moving-- say: Senator, you are making a mountain out of a molehill because your farmers can get help through the 2008 disaster farm bill. We passed a farm bill. There is a disaster provision to try to help your farmers.
So I want to read this into the Record:
All of the rules and regulations--
Of that bill that is supposed to be a help for us--
. . . have not yet been written; and payments may not be
available until October or November of 2009.
Our farmers cannot wait until November of 2009 for assistance. They need it now. The only people who can give them assistance is us. So I am filing a bill today on behalf of myself, Senator Hutchison, Senator Lincoln, Senator Pryor, and Senator Wicker. On behalf of these Senators, I am introducing this bill today, and I urge other colleagues to look at this bill to see if they will join us in our efforts to put before this Congress at the earliest possible time a bill that will at least provide a glimmer of hope for these farmers and rural communities throughout America. I send the bill to the desk.
Again, the reason this bill has to be introduced and the reason this speech had to be given today, and the reason this Congress must act before we leave--we are going to, it looks like, take a break for a day or two, come back for a couple of days next week, and it looks like there is going to be some bailout package for Wall Street. It might be a $700 billion package, it might be a $300 billion package, it could be a $400 billion package. By the time they finish negotiating, maybe it is only a $200 billion package. Right now, I am leaning against voting for that package, no matter how it is structured, without certain provisions in it. This bill asks for $1 billion--$1 billion of--which at least will help all the rest of the farming communities in this part of the country while we are working on bailing out the financial community.
Mr. President, $1 billion. And maybe that is not sufficient. I introduce the bill at this level because our needs in Louisiana are $700 million. I know we might not be able to get every penny that our commissioner has testified we desperately need and most certainly can justify. I am most certainly willing for this $1 billion to be shared by the other States that can put forth their documents and put forth their requirements. Maybe this $1 billion is not sufficient. But I could not in good conscience leave here without putting something down with my colleagues. And this is a bipartisan effort.
I am so grateful this morning that I was able to secure, by the motions that were provided this morning on the calendar, the support of Senator Hutchison of Texas. She cannot even get into some places in Texas to do the assessment because the water and damage is so high. But she has cosponsored this bill with me.
I am very proud as well to have Senator Lincoln and Senator Pryor as cosponsors. I am going to yield to both of them in a moment. I see Senator Conrad is in the Chamber. I wish to give each of them 5 minutes to speak because they are quite knowledgeable about this situation--I must say more knowledgeable than I am about farm programs. Senator Lincoln is on the committee. Senator Conrad was the chief sponsor and designer of the farm disaster program. He helped to write it. Having his testimony and him speaking today about why the program that he wrote, with all good intentions, is not necessarily going to help us and why we need special assistance will give a lot of support to my arguments.
I yield to my good friend from Arkansas for whatever she might require. I thank her for being a cosponsor of the bill.
Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Arkansas for her remarks. As you can see, she is one of the experts in farming policy of this country. We are very grateful.
I now yield 5 minutes to the Senator from North Dakota.
Mr. President, I thank the Senator from North Dakota. I couldn't say it better myself, and I most certainly don't know it as well as he does, but I wish to read to the Senator, before he leaves the floor, something that I think will make him even more concerned.
I would like to say to the Senator that, in anticipation--because I was getting nowhere with my conversations, except with good people such as yourself, and of course Senator Harkin was very interested, Senator Lincoln, and Senator Hutchison, but others didn't seem to have a real understanding of this situation despite the fact that we kept talking. So I wrote a letter to HUD, because in the disaster package which we are voting on now, the Senator may know that there is $22 billion of special disaster relief, and in that there is $6.5 billion of community development block grant money, for which we are grateful. That is money for Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and, frankly, the whole part of the country that got hit by the storms. But Houston alone--the mayor of Houston, just to put this in perspective, was on record this week saying that Houston alone needs $30 billion. Now let me repeat that. Houston alone may need $30 billion, and we have $6.5 billion in this bill that we are going to spread the best way we can throughout many States.
So people would tell me: Senator, you don't have a problem. Just go get some money from the community development block grant. Maybe you all can come up with a plan to help your farmers.
So I thought: Well, let me scurry over and find out if that could be possible.
So I wrote a letter as quickly as I could, and I said:
Gustav and Ike caused an estimated $700 million in damage
in agricultural damage in Louisiana alone. Regulations have
still not been written . . . will not be available through
this program until 2009, which is much too long to wait. Can
CDBG funds be used to provide grants and loans to individual
farmers, ranchers, and fishermen, as well as agricultural
lending institutions and processing facilities?
I was hoping that maybe I could get a glimmer of hope. But I want to read for the record what they wrote.
This is probably an eligible activity under the CDBG
disaster recovery program. CDBG funds may be used to assist
businesses to create or retain low- and moderate-income jobs,
and the CDBG disaster recovery program allows the State to
make grants and loans directly rather than working through
local governments.
But here is the kicker:
The only issue that may arise is that Circular OMB A-87
does not allow one Federal program to be used for costs
allocable to another program and these costs may be allocable
to the USDA SURE Program.
And here is the last sentence:
If the CDBG activity is designed to only cover costs USDA
will not allow, then it could work.
Mr. President, I tell my friend from North Dakota, if I go home and try to read this paragraph of gobbledygook to my farmers, I wouldn't blame them for trying to find another Senator. I mean, I cannot even understand it myself, yet I am supposed to go home and tell the people whom I represent that this is the paragraph I have left Washington with?
I didn't think this was sufficient, and so I make no apologies to my colleagues, but as a way of explanation, the reason I am standing here for this 1 hour is to just testify that this paragraph is not sufficient. The program is not sufficient.
As I speak, I know the powers that be in this Chamber, on both sides, and in the White House have been in meeting after meeting trying to bail out Wall Street. Could somebody spend 1 hour or 2 hours figuring out how to bail out our farmers throughout the entire midpart of our country? Because this paragraph isn't going to do it.
I will yield.
I thank the Senator from North Dakota. Again, because I was able to introduce this bill this morning, I wanted very much for it to be introduced with the support of both Republican and Democratic leaders, and I was able to secure that. As I said, the senior Senator from Texas is a cosponsor of this bill, and I am certain that sometime before the next few days she will speak on behalf of the farmers of Texas because I myself am aware, having flown over many parts of southwest Louisiana, what the agricultural situation in Texas looks like. It is not quite as bad per capita as Louisiana--and, of course, Texas has Galveston, Bridge City, Houston, and so many other areas affected--but the agricultural hit to Texas is going to be significant.
May I inquire of the Chair how many minutes I have remaining?
I thank the Chair.
Mr. President, I think this says it all. I most certainly am not trying, again, to grandstand here because I do understand the significance of what happens on Wall Street and in Manhattan and in many of the financial centers of this country, of which New Orleans, whether it is a small city--Merrill Lynch actually started in New Orleans many years ago. So I am not unaware of the significance of cities such as Boston and Manhattan and New Orleans and San Francisco and Chicago and the well-being of our financial sector and our country to operate. I am not unaware of the importance of this financial system needing to be secure not just for our people or our institutions and our taxpayers but for the world. Our economy is so large, and so much of the rest of the world's finances, in large measure, now are so interconnected. So I am not here complaining about the time and effort that has gone into trying to figure this situation out.
What I am complaining about is that in all of these discussions, no one seems to understand that there is a financial crisis right now in the heartland that is not being relieved by this disaster bill we are getting ready to vote on, nor, to date, have I heard one sentence, one phrase, one section, one paragraph that might bring any hope to the thousands of farmers and ranchers who never even saw a subprime loan, who have never filled out an application for a subprime loan, yet whose crops in the field are rotting, are unharvestable--not one single word about them. So I thought it was worth at least 1 hour of this Congress's time to hear that word from me and to hear that word from Senator Lincoln and to hear that word from Senator Conrad and to hear that word from Senator Pryor and to hear that word from Senator Wicker and Senator Hutchison, who have joined in this effort.
I am going to ask the other Senators to join with us. Many of them are reading the document now. Senator Harkin has it under consideration. Senator Saxby Chambliss has it under consideration. I have expressed to both of them, with respect, as leaders of the Agriculture Committee--should they see anything in this bill that they think should be modified or increased or decreased or written in a different way, the Senator from Louisiana is most certainly willing to take any amendments that they would think necessary to make this work. I am not even asking for this, again, to be for Louisiana. This is for the whole country.
I have to spend an hour saying $700 billion for Wall Street and zero for farmers? It could be said a different way: $700 billion for financiers, zero for farmers.
If you want to know why people in America are upset with this bailout, I could give you several reasons. Let me try one big one. The regular people out there, who put boots on in the morning and go to work, direct traffic, run the daycare centers, teach our kids in school, get on the fire trucks in the morning, shine shoes, open the grocery store--they don't think anyone is listening to them. And they are right. No one is listening to them. Everyone is listening to the people who have a lot of money--money, money, money.
People who work hard every day and actually put in 14-hour days and maybe make--not farmers, because they usually make more than this--but $8 or $10 an hour, they work hard, they never heard about a quick buck--there are no quick bucks in the life they live. They don't make $500 million an hour. They don't make $1 million a minute. They are lucky if they make $1 million in a lifetime. I have to go home and tell them not only I wasn't able to do anything to help them but no one in the whole Congress could come up with a plan to help them. I am not going home with that. I am not going home with it.
I am not going home with gobbledegook. I want to read it again in the last 5 minutes. This was the response I got. Senator, we can't do anything for you, we can't amend the bill, we can't give you a vote on the floor, we can't put it in the bailout package, we can't put it in the disaster package, we can't have a committee meeting, we can't do anything. We can't do anything. That is what I was told all week.
This is the sheet of paper I am going to submit for the Record. This is $6.5 billion. I hope the cameras could see it. I wish I had it blown up; $6.5 billion. That is what we are taking home for all the disasters including Houston, Galveston, everything else. I was told if I needed help for my farmers, I could do this:
Dear Senator, your request to help farmers, this is
probably an eligible activity under the Community Development
Block Grant Disaster Recovery Program. These funds may be
used to assist businesses to create or retain low- and
moderate-income jobs and the CBDG Disaster Recovery Program
allows the States to make grants or loans directly rather
than through local governments. The only issue that may arise
is that circular OMB 8-87 [may?] does not allow one Federal
program to be used for costs allocable to another program and
these costs may be allocable to the USDA shore program.
If the CDBG is designed to only cover costs USDA would not allow, then it would work.
I don't have time to explain this to my farmers because it doesn't make any sense. The only thing--actually nothing makes sense to them. I went home last weekend--and I am going to wrap up. I have about a minute left.
I went home last weekend and told them I would be there, and hundreds of them came out of the fields with dirt on their hands, of course, filthy dirt. These are men who had been farming for decades, who said: Senator, I left my sons in the field to come meet you. These are the farmers I met with. They said: Senator, what is going on in Washington? Between the weather reports we have to read and working hard in our fields all day, we are having a hard time understanding about this bailout. Who are we bailing out? Why are we bailing them out? And does anybody know that our crops are under water, that we have had the worst disaster?
This disaster for us, may I remind everyone, comes 3 years after Katrina hit our State and it was the worst natural disaster and manmade disaster. Let me give you some numbers to illustrate this. When Hurricane Andrew hit, the per capita was $58. After the attacks on the World Trade Center, the per capita equaled $1,050. But after Katrina and Rita hit, the per capita damage shot up to $4,366. And that number will only increase after all the damage left by Gustav and Ike has been assessed.
Let me repeat that. No disaster in the history of the country ever exceeded the mark that Katrina and Rita have left Louisiana, including 9/11 or anything. Our disaster in Katrina and Rita, from Mississippi and Louisiana, exceeded $4,000 per capita.
I know about disasters. I have been through the worst one in the history of the country. We are just recovering. We are grateful for the aid. We are still struggling. We have communities that are still destroyed, neighborhoods with houses that are worth $600,000 as well as $50,000, still struggling. The gulf coast is not back. And then we get hit by this and then I have to go home and tell my farmers that we are going to do $700 billion for financiers, and nothing for them? I have to go home and tell them I don't know what is going on in this bailout passage, all I can tell you is it looks as though the financiers are going to win and you are going to lose again.
I thought before I did that, if at least they could see that I was fighting for them and they could see an actual bill we introduced, that might be helpful.
I see my good friend, the Senator from Mississippi, here. I would be happy to yield a minute if he wanted to speak on this, or two?
I thank the Senator from Mississippi.
How much time do I have remaining?
I am going to wrap up now in 1 minute and yield the rest of my time because I know the Senators are anxious for a vote. I couldn't think of a better way to end than with an endorsement from the senior Senator from Mississippi. He and I and his colleague before him, Trent Lott, have been through the mill, as they say at home, with these storms. Well fought, shoulder to shoulder, side by side. We have had disagreements, but we continue to work on behalf of the people of Mississippi and Louisiana, the gulf coast. We have said often--he and I have come to the floor to say this is America's working coast. We are America's energy coast. We are a breadbasket in our farming community for the rice, cotton, sugarcane, and corn. I appreciate his support.
I will be pleased to add him as a cosponsor.
Again, I want the Senator to understand I would not have taken this time--and I do not take it lightly. I am not here complaining about something that only affects Louisiana, although that would be meritorious enough. But I am here saying we cannot talk about a bailout of $700 billion for Wall Street and zero for the rest of America, particularly our farmers.
I yield the time.
Cooperative Development Program
I ask for the yeas and nays.