Date: 1989-03-21
Speaker: DE LA GARZA (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. I take this time today to discuss the budget implications of the Department of Agriculture. what the American people get from our involvement in agriculture and in part. Mr. Speaker. to answer some of the unfair accusations as to what the impact of the agricultural budget is on the total Federal budget. Agriculture is being unfairly targeted by the media and by the administration for budget cuts. The word is out that agriculture is spending too much. that we are subsidizing farmers too much by using the taxpayers dollars. I will get to that in just a moment. Lets first look back at the early 1980s. a period of extremely difficult transition for our Nations farmers and ranchers. But with the farm bill of 1985 and the Agricultural Credit Act of 1987 we in Congress laid the foundation for the recovery. Neither was a perfect bill. but they were consensus bills and overall they are working well. Au we hear throughout the country from farmers and ranchers. consumers. environmentalists and everyone interested in the welfare and the quality of life of the people of our country. they give a plus rating to the 1985 Farm Bill and to the 1987 Agricultural Credit Act. The vital signs of American agriculture are improving. Farm debt is being reduced. We are regaining our export markot. Farmer income is up. The same positive signs are seen in the farm credit. The key to sustaining this recovery lies in the budget choices we make this year. This is very important because we are Just now getting agriculture on a sound footing. and under the administrations budget we could very well do something highly detrimental to what has come to be not only positive thinking and feeling out on American farms and ranches. but certainly positive in terms of what the American consumer gets for what the Federal Government spends. We are the best fed people in the history of the world. with the best quality food. the safest food. for the least amount of disposable income of any major industrialized people in the world. In the budget that President Bush sent down he said that he would not balance It on the backs of farmers. But the numbers that have come down are not kinder nor gentler. Let me show you examples of this with graphs. I have a chart here that will show what I am speaking about. Chart No. I shows the deficit reductions proposed in the Reagan/Bush budget. (Chart not reproducible in the RECORD.) The gray is the budget reductions of all other programs. The yellow and the green. or 5.4 percent. is farm support. the socalled subsidies. and all of the other USDA programs are in the yellow. So my colleagues can see here that the Reagan/Bush budget targets agriculture for 16 percent of the $34 billion in reductions Bought in the entire budget. I insist that this is not fair. In the next chart. No. 2. we have shown where the Department of Agriculture fits into total fiscal spending. (Chart not reproducible in the REcoRD.) For the year 1988. agriculture spent $44 billion. That is the yellow section at the bottom of the chart. But that is out of $1.1 trillion. So all of agriculture. even if we abolished the Department of Agriculture. would be reducing the budget by only 4 percent. In chart No. 3 we show spending by agencies. (Chart not reproducible in the RECORD.) The highest one is Defense. the second one is Social Security. the third one is Treasury. the fourth one is Health and Human Serv. ices. and Agriculture is fifth. We have already spent 77 percent of the budget by the time we get to agriculture in the red part of the chart. Chart No. 4 also explains what I am speaking about. (Chart not reproducible in the RECORD.) Here we divide the Department of Agriculture into what the expenditures go for. The red is food and nutrition programs. school lunch. school breakfast. elderly feeding and everything in food and nutrition. The green is farm support. Roughly onefourth is what goes to the farmers. The blue is conservation and the Forest Service. and rural development is in the gray. The black is foreign assistance. and all other is in the small yellow area. But look. the green is all we do for the farmer in relation to farm support within the Department of Agriculture. The next chart No. 5. should be very interesting to my colleagues because we show in this chart where agriculture ranks by budget functions. (Chart not reproducible in the REcoRD.) We begin with defense. Then we go to Social Security. then we go to net interest. and this Is very important. net interest on the debt. Then we go to income security. then we go to Medicare. then we go to health. then education. training and employment. then veterans. then transportation. then commerce and housing. and then we came to agriculture No. 11 in the ranking. The sum of 93 percent of the budget has already been spent by the time we get to agriculture. Some people. many of whom are in the media. are saying If we could get rid of the subsidies we will balance the Federal budget. How wrong can they be. because here is what we spend on the red. and there Is the rest of the Federal budget. If we abolish the Departmerit of Agriculture. we do not even make a dent In the Federal budget. And now the next one is Chart No. 6. (Chart not reproducible in the RECORD.) My dear friends. this is how it all got started. I asked or economist on the Committee on Agriculture "Can you make a graphic demonstration. a chart. where you put in red the total budget. the whole $1.1 trillion budget. and then superimpose on it. in blue. what we are spending for agriculture?" He says. "OK. let me try it." So he went off and then a couple of days later he came back and says. "Boss. it wont work." I said. "what do you mean it wont work?" He said. "It will not wnrk." I said. "Why wont it work? Show me." then he says. "Theres the total vudget. See that little line at the bottom. that is what we spent for agriculture. No one will be able to see it." But this is not what you read in the major periodicals which say agriculture is breaking the budget. that we are subsidizing too much. I do not know if you can see it. it is very difficult to see that little blue line. but that is what is going for farm price supports. That is the socalled subsidy. 1.15 percent of the total trilliondollarplus budget. They stumble over more money than that in a week at the Pentagon. not that I am antidefense or anything of that nature. Certainly I am for a strong defense. As a matter of fact. without farmers and ranchers there is no defense. It is not fair that they point the finger at us at Agriculture. It is not fair that they say. "If you abolish the subsidies. this happens." They used to say that for food stamps. that if you abolish food stamps you will balance the budget. Well. you have seen the graph where it shows all of the food and nutrition programs. This is the reality. These are the facts. This is the truth. This is what we are dealing with. Here is the totality of the budget in red and the blue at the bottom is what we spend for agriculture and farm support prices. Now let me show you again chart No. 7. the top budget functions are projected by CBO. that is the Congressional Budget Office. in the spending for 1990. (Chart not reproducible in the RECORD.) Total spending grows. but we see here agrrlculture is diminishing. You have here defense. Social Security. net interest on the debt. income security. Medicare. health. education. training employment. veterans. transportation. commerce housing and credit. natural resources and the environment. International affairs. Agriculture Is projected to fall from the 11th largest spending function in 1988 to the 13th largest in 1990. You have already spent 95 percent of the budget by the time you get to agriculture. Lets look at projections by CBO shown in the chartNo. 8 of expenditures on farm prices and income support. (Chart not reproducible in the RECoRD.) In 1986. you can see we were spending about $36 billion. Now that is a lot of money. $26 billion. But the question I muut ask. as chairman of the committee. the question the members of our committee must ask is: $26 billion out of how much? Out of $1 trillionplus. When I went to school we did not even know what a trillion was in math. Now the Federal budget is in the trillions. Here is the projection by CBO that by 1994 agriculture will be at the bottom therebetween $5 billion and $0 billion. That is still a lot of money. but out of $1 trillionplus? Where is the impact? Where is the sting? Where is the burden. I ask? Agriculture spending is coming down. Now if you will go back to the chart with the little blue line at the bottom. I want to show my colleagues what we get for that. We are the bestfed people in the world for the least amount of disposable income per family in the industrialized world. Not only that but agriculture and the food and fiber system represents 17 percent of our Nations gross national product. The U.S. agriculture and food and fiber system provide one out of six Jobs in the United States of America. The food and fiber system generates an estimated 20.1 million jobs. about 17 percent of the entire work force. Approximately 90 percent of the Jobs in todays food and fiber system are off the farm. These are Jobs in the cities and the towns and villages. Lets look at agriculture in the global arena. The U.S. agricultural labor force. including forestry. hunting. fishing. represents only 0.3 percent of the worlds agriculture labor force. Yet It produces 8 percent of the worlds food grains. 27 percent of the worlds feed grains. and 25 percent of the worlds beef. This is what we get for that little blue line of spending at the bottom of the red chart. We are the largest exporting nation in the world for agricultural products. In fiscal year 1988. U.S. agricultural exports were $35.5 billion. agricultural imports were only $21 billion. The $14.5 billion favorable balance of trade offset some of the large unfavorable balances in industrial trade. The world is no longer buying everything that we manufacture. They do not buy our radios. our calculators. our television sets. our refrigerators. our washing machines. typewriters. and so forth. They do not buy those things anymore. Our value of 1987 exports were as follows: to Japan. $5.7 billion. to the Netherlands. $2 billion. to South Korea. $1.8 billion. to Canada. $1.8 billion. to Taiwan. $1.3 billion. to West Germany. $1.3 billion. to Mexico. $1.2 billion. Even to the U.S.S.R. we provide slightly under $1 billion. Now who does this? One American farmer or rancher provides for 114 persons. 92 in the United States and 22 overseas. That is what one farmer or rancher does in the United States of America. he or she provides for 114 persons. 92 here and 22 overseas. In the United States it takes only 13 percent of your disposable income to purchase food. What does it cost in Japan? Eighteen percent. In the Philippines? Fiftythree percent. In France? Eighteen percent. In Ecuador? Thirtyfive percent. Look at the personal consumption expenditures. another useful measure. It includes nondurable goods. such as food. durable goods. such as autos. services. such as rent and so on. In the United States we spend only 14 percent of personal consumption expenditure on food. the U.S.S.R.. it is 40 percent. in Greece. 42 percent. in Japan. 21 percent. in Sierra Leonethese just taken randomly65 percent. That is what It takes of their income for survival. 65 percent. In the United States. 14 percent. We here in the United States have a celebration unique in the world. it is called Thanksgiving Day beginning with the early settlers. When we thank the Almighty for the bounty that He has given us. it began in that respect. They gave thanks for their survival many years ago and the bounty the Almighty had given them. Yesterday. the first day of spring. March 20. we celebrated National Agriculture Day. This is for the agricultural producers of America. This is when we thank those that work with the good Liord to give us that bounty. These are the ones that provide us with the food and the fiber for our sustenance and for everything that we use. the agricultural fiber. the cotton. the wool. and everything else that comes from agriculture. So yesterday we celebrated. We celebrated that we are the bestfed people in the world. not that there is no hunger In America. But it never has been the fault of the farmer. The man does not have a job. there was a disaster. transportation. something failed. it was not the farmer or the rancher. Americas farmers provided and they always provide. and this is what we cel) brate. I could shout it from the dom.- of this great Capitol but they will not listen to me. It is not sensational. It does not make the 6 oclock news. It does not get on the front pages of the major periodicals and it should. We are the bestfed people in the history of the world. It takes less money for our people to feed themselves than anywhere else. We have the safest. healthiest food of any other people in the world. This should make the 6 oclock news. This should be on the front pages. but it is not. There are the uninformed and misinformed who sensationalize one item or another but the fact is and remains that we have a very productive agricultural sector. Thank the Lord that we do. because we produce for ourselves and we have enough to send around the world. Here earlier was mentioned the fact that we celebrate with our Greek friends the independence of Greece and what they have given us and how democracy and the democratic Institutions as we know them. in part. were copied from the Greeks. But the peace and security of the Nation depends basically on the United States of America because of our institutions and because of our defense and our offensive posture. We have the military might to defend the world. When I was very young. 17 years old. I Joined the Navy. I joined the Navy because I saw a sign that said. "Join the Navy and see the world." Well. they never put me on a ship. They never sent me out to sea. I got thrown out of more offices wanting to go to sea aboard a ship. When I came to Congress. we had the liaison officers from the military. When the Navy liaison officer came to see me. he greeted me. a very personable young commander. He said he saw I was an old sailor. and I said I was. and he said. "What was your ship?" Well. it was Great Lakes. IL. That is where I had been the longest when I was in the Navy. He asked if there was anything he could do for me. and I said. yes. get me on board a ship. So he did. I went on a carrier. the biggest one there was. and It was a thrill of a lifetime. unique experience. Then I went on a cruiser. Then I went on a destroyer. Finally. I said I wanted to go on a nuclear submarine. nuclearpowered. nucleararmed. Well. they did not know about that. Finally. they worked it out. I went off on the submarine. again. once in a lifetime. a unique. thrilling experience that cannot be compared. We went under water. saw everything. Coming back. on the surface. there was not a ripple on the water. a beautiful sunset. We were looking at the coast of Florida. and I made the mention of how peaceful an evening it was. and the young commander looked at me and he said. "And to think that we have enough megatonnage in the belly of this thing to destroy the world." Well that. needless to say. was a little unnerving. But then it triggered I had not asked the question. We defend the world and the freedom and the democracy of all the free peoples of the world. But the other side knows every minute of the day where our troops are. They know every minute of the day where our planes are. They know every minute of the day where our missile sites are. They know every minute of the day where our ships are. They know every minute of the day where our satellites are. The only thing they do not know is. is where is that submarine under the water with enough megatonnage to destroy the world. So I asked the obvious question. "How long can you keep this submarine under water?" He looked at me and he said that that was a military secret. I said. "Come on. I am cleared." and he says. "OK. take a guess." So from what I remembered from my science days. I said 7 years. He smiled at me and he says. "No. I can keep this submarine under water as long as I have food for my crew." That Is the deterrent. So who Is preserving the peace and democracy of the free peoples of the world? Who is keeping the world at peace? Who is providing the nourishment so that our forces in that submarine can be there? The farmers and ranchers of America are. the people that we celebrated yesterday. And all that Is costing. my dear friends. is that little blue line that we can barely see at the bottom of the chart. God bless America and God bless all who work in agriculture.