Date: 2007-05-10
Speaker: HERSETH SANDLIN (democrat)
Chamber: H

I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. Mr. Speaker. I rise today in strong support of this legislation to provide desperately needed disaster assistance to farmers and ranchers across this country who are suffering from natural disasters. Over the past several years. large swaths of my home State of South Dakota have experienced persistent. severe. devastating drought. It has been particulaily hard on livestock producers in my State. Its epicenter has been across central and western South Dakota. some of the Nations prime cattle and sheep grazing land. The drought worsened dramatically early last summer. Customary spring rains never came. By June. we were seeing temperature records being broken weekly and water holes going dry. The landscape was brown. By August it was black. bare. parched Earth where we usually have lush green grass. Ranchers in my State had two op- we dont have a strong and vibrant When parts of Texas endure an extions. purchase and haul feed and water economy at home. we cant support our treme drought. the burden is felt most at substantial cost to their cattle. or troops overseas. We cant support other heavily by our farm families. A devsell or dramatically cull their herds. countries and their needs. We have got astating lack of water left many of our Many of them chose the latter because to rebuild America. We have got to pro- counties parched. Sam Berry..a rancher of the persistence of this drought. Live- tect our land here at home. And this is from Lavaca County wrote me to say: stock auction markets across the re- only todays fire. We had just a year- "After backtoback bad seasons and gion reported record sale numbers. andahalf ago a huge blaze that ripped with all my reserve hay gone. how Many producers were. in essence. sell- through the Boundary Areas Canoe much worse could it get"? ing their factories. Area. Well. as bad as that drought was This is particularly hard on younger We need this assistance. we need it down in Texas. it is nothing like the ranchers. So many of these ranchers now. and we need it in this bill. drought of understanding for the plight now dont have adequate breeding [ 2100 of farmers and ranchers here in Washstock to produce the calves today that Ms. DELAURO. Mr. Speaker. I yield 1 ington. They have faced indifference on they would have sold this fall. Thus. minute to the gentleman from Oregon top of indifference. many of the real economic impacts are . Federal disaster assistance dried up. still to come. Once a ranch family Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker. I I received similar pleas from farmers leaves the land. they are gone forever. would like to take up where my good and ranchers like David Wagner in Small towns and local businesses suf- friend from Minnesota left off in terms Lavaca County and others from fer. schools and churches suffer. the of dealing with the money that is in Bastrop County and Caldwell County very fabric of our communities is torn this legislation that would help us deal and Fayette and Colorado counties. apart. with tThe last Congress. with $10 billion to As devastating the crisis that is occurring in our burn every month in Iraq. had nothing As dvasatin asthi droghthasNations forests. been to our economy. the lack of appre- One of the legacies. unfortunately. of to offer these ranchers here at home. ciation for its seriousness among some the last Congress where we had a melt- When our new Congress finally passed who -dont come from rural America down of the budget process is that emergency help this March. that help has been equally frustrating. Many of these issues were left unresolved. We was vetoed by the President. my colleagues and I have been trying have eviscerated the budgets for the The bill that we pass today is anfor almost 2 years to get this done. The Department of the Interior. shifting other attempt to provide muchneeded administration has threatened to veto money out of operating budgets for assistance to these farmers and ranchthe assistance for the past 2 years purposes of firefighting. This is going ers. through today. We filed a discharge pe- to help us move back in the right direc- I know that ranching looks mighty tition at the end of the last Congress tion easy over in the Oval Office when some which nearly every Democratic Mem- One of the other casualties was the over there seem to think that clearing ber and a handful of Republican Mem- county payments program. In the last out brush in August is vacation work. bers signed. but Republican leadership session. the implosion of the budget But for those for whom ranching is not failed to take action e process where the Republican majority a hobby. who have found that their Supporters of this necessary relief and the administration could not fol- fields turned fallow. for those like Pat have been criticized by some for trying low through. left 4.600 school districts Peterson of Red Rock whom highto attach it to the emergency supple- across the west. including a number in priced hay means selling their best mental. Well. because thelast Congress my State in Oregon in a lurch. livestock. disaster endangers a life and couldnt get its work done last year. This legislation steps up and meets a livelihood. this is all we have. We make no apolo- the needs. It is not extraneous. I sin- This spring. Texas has had some regies for it. We have been forced to wait cerely hope the President changes his lief. But who is to say this wet spring until today. and suffering U.S. farmers tune and withdraws his veto threat. will last. and it is not enough to make and ranchers have been forced to wait Ms. DELAURO. Mr. Speaker. I yield 1 up for the last two really bad seasons until today too. minute to the gentlewoman from Or- that our farmers and ranchers have enThe economic and psychological egon . I dured. Helping our farmers and ranchdamage that these droughts cause is Ms. HOOLEY. Mr. Speaker. it is in- ers now cannot guarantee them sucjust as real as that caused by hurri- teresting that when we talk about Hur- cess. but it will go a long way in helpcanes. tornadoes and floods. This bill ricane Katrina. a horrible disaster that ing restore what has been lost and procan alleviate some of that pain. Lets affected hundreds of thousands of lives. tect what remains. pass it tonight and get this assistance left people homeless. we talk about the I hope the House tonight will approve out to those throughout rural America. recent tornado or hurricane wiping this bill and that the President will fithose who are quietly suffering on the away a city. people ask me. particu- nally get behind the relief that his felland. larly those from the urban areas. why low Texans need so very much.