Date: 1989-09-26
Speaker: DE LA GARZA (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Chairman. in 1989 we find that most of the economic vital signs of American agriculture are improving. Farm debt is being reduced. We are regaining our export markets. Farmer income is up. Our surpluses of most major commodities are under control. This turnaround from the situation we had in the early and mideighties has been made possible by the programs and policies we put In place with the Food Security Act of 1985 and the Agricultural Credit Act of 1987. In fact. the funds needed for the credit act have been reduced because of the policies of the 1985 farm bill. It must be stressed how delicate this recovery Is and how budgetary pressures threaten to derail the recovery. I need not remind my colleagues uf the fact that our farmers have had to cope with the devastating and widespread drought of 1988 and the more localIzed drought of 1989. In recent years I have often come to the House floor to set the record straight on agriculture spending. Critics here in Congress. the previous administration and in the media have taken issue with the amount of money we spend on farm programs. Both the Reagan administration and now the Bush administration budget requests have unfairly targeted agriculture for deep cuts. Yet. if you abolish the entire Department of Agricultureand that would Include tood stamps. nutrition programs. research. and extensignyou would reduce the Federal budget by only 4 percent. All of the money we spend on farm price support programswhat Is often characterized in the press as the subsidy for farmerswill amount to less than 1 percent of the total trilliondollarplus fiscal 1990 Federal budget. And this even includes disaster assistance for farmers. . What we seem to forgct is that farm programs have enabled us to be the best fed people in the history of the world. and for the least amount of disposable income of any major industrialized country. Today. we are faced with the task of reconciling our budget expenditures with expected revenues. Members of the Committee on Agriculture worked very diligently. in a bipartisan and timely manner. to reach the deficit reduction required In areas under our jurisdiction for fiscal year 1990. I greatly appreciate the work and cooperation exhibited by every member of the committee in this joint effort. I also want to thank the members and staff of the Budget Committee. especially its distinguished chairman and a colleague on the Agriculture Committee. Mr. PANETTA. Their cooperation and assistance has been very much appreciated. None of the changes we recommend in our agricultural and farm credit programs as part of reconciliation were made easily. We were faced with many hard choices compounded by the fact that since 1981 we have been required to reduce agriculture spending by some $30 billion. In the package before us today. we have again tried to meet our budget obligations in a way that is as fair as possible to farmers. We have tried to do so without disrupting program objectives and. where possible. we try to improve program operations in ways that save the taxpayer money. It was not an easy task. I ask that a briel summary and explanation of the Committee on Agricultures reconciliation package be included in the RECORD at this point: