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“THE DROUGHT IN NEW MEXICO” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Agriculture was published in the Senate section on pages S5789-S5790 on June 5, 1996.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
THE DROUGHT IN NEW MEXICO
Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I wanted to take a few minutes here to bring the Senate up to date on the severe drought that we are experiencing in all of the Southwest, but particularly in my home State of New Mexico, and also to urge action on a bill that I introduced with 14 cosponsors recently--the Temporary Emergency Livestock Feed Assistance Act of 1996.
Last week, in Roswell, NM, the newspaper called the Roswell Daily Record contained a joke of sorts. It said that a rancher placed five calves in a pen because he could not afford to feed them. He knew that they would not fetch much if he tried to sell them. He put a sign on there saying ``free calves.'' He came back the next day and found 20 calves in the pen. This a joke, but unfortunately, in New Mexico, the drought is no laughing matter. The precipitation levels in my State, through the end of May of this year, are 60 to 80 percent below normal.
In the Albuquerque Journal on May 26, it profiled a ranch owned by Shirley Porter. One of the lines of the story summed up the circumstances that she faces and says, ``She does not need to worry about gates anymore. There is nothing here to get loose. Shirley Porter, who is a rancher in San Jon, on the east side of New Mexico, sold every last one of her 139 cows, calves, and bulls at a livestock auction in Clayton, NM. She was given a total of $30,204.63 for all of her livestock. She had come to this ranch as a bride right after high school. And now, at the age of 67, she was forced to liquidate. She was quoted as saying, ``I am not going to grieve for them''--that is, the livestock--``because if I had kept them, they would have starved to death.''
Every part of New Mexico is affected by this drought, and much of the rest of the Southwest as well. In one part of New Mexico, farmers are predicting that they will obtain about 1 bushel per acre of wheat. Usually the yield is about 45 bushels per acre. To keep the livestock alive, ranchers are forced in some cases to burn the thorns off prickly pear cacti to give their cattle a little food. Ranchers are having to sell off cattle just to pay the interest on the loans that they have, and, of course, the cattle market is flooded. Calves that would have sold for $125 a year ago now are selling for $10 to $20.
Fireworks in my State have been banned by our State Corporation Commission statewide from now through the 18th of the month. I think they are going to consider extending that ban assuming no rain is forthcoming; 22 of 33 counties have been declared disaster drought areas.
Let me refer to some charts that I have here, Mr. President, to make the point even more graphically. I think these are hard for anyone to see from a distance, but perhaps the coloration of the charts will make the point.
As I understand, the Weather Service's main indicator for drought areas--severe drought--is the so-called Palmer Index. When you look at the Palmer Index for the country as a whole--this is valid through the end of March 1996--you can see that much of my State or the majority of my State even by the end of March was listed in a severe or extreme drought condition. Here again is the drought severity index. This is the long-term Palmer Index, which shows the bright red area, which shows most of my State and, of course, most of the Presiding Officer's State of Arizona listed again as severe or extreme drought. Much of Nevada and California as well as much of the Southwestern part of the country is affected.
On U.S. precipitation rankings, again from the Weather Bureau, you can see that extremely dry is the bright orange area through the entire State of New Mexico and much of the rest of the Southwest as well. This final chart is one which tries to show the severity of the fire danger. As of May 3, 1996, again it shows virtually all of New Mexico and all of Arizona and much of Texas, Colorado, Utah, California, and Nevada.
So this is a serious problem, Mr. President.
What I have proposed and what many have joined me in proposing is Senate bill 1743, the Temporary Emergency Livestock Feed Assistant Act of 1996. The bill would give immediate assistance to ranchers if passed. We now have 14 cosponsors of that legislation as of last count. We would be putting the livestock feed program back into effect with this legislation for a 1-year period. The program was suspended in the recently enacted farm bill. This proposed legislation would extend the program through 1996.
Under the bill, producers who have suffered at least a 40-percent loss of feed production would be able to apply for assistance through their local farm service agencies. The livestock eligible would be cattle, sheep, and goats. The old program was funded through the Commodity Credit Corporation. We do not propose to do that again. S. 1743 targets $18 million from the Cottonseed and Sunflower Seed Oil Export Assistance Program. I am informed that this is money which is not expected to be used this current year. It is money that was appropriated but will not be used for that purpose because the need is not there.
In addition, the Department of Agriculture has a stockpile of grain. The stockpile, of course, is referred to as the Commodity Reserve Program.
I was encouraged to see that there is a resolution that now has passed the House and which is expected to be considered here in the Senate very shortly to urge the Secretary of Agriculture and the President to go forward with use of that Commodity Reserve Program. That is another part of the legislation that we introduced calling on the Secretary of Agriculture to report back as to what portion of those commodities could appropriately be used to provide assistance to these ranchers.
Mr. President, this is a serious problem. It is not one that has been short-lived. We have been living with the drought now for many months in the Southwest. Unfortunately, the situation seems to continue. Each of my calls back to New Mexico, regardless of what subject I call to discuss with people there, begins with a discussion about the drought and the lack of rainfall.
I hope very much that the Senate and the Congress as a whole will go ahead and act on this Temporary Emergency Livestock Feed Assistance Act. I have talked to the chairman and ranking member of the Agriculture Committee and asked them to give attention to this, and hopefully we can take action on this in the next few weeks before we adjourn for the Fourth of July recess.
This is the kind of constructive act that I think would encourage people in their view of the Congress. There is, of course, a tremendous amount of politics being played in Washington these days on all sides. Everyone knows that. We are looking for things that we can agree upon and constructively pursue. In my view, enactment of this Senate bill 1743 should be one of those actions that we could take on a bipartisan basis which would help the people that we are sent here to represent.
Mr. President, I urge consideration of this. I encourage any of the other Senators or their staffers who may be watching or hearing the discussion today who would like to cosponsor the legislation to do so. Let me read off a short list of 14 cosponsors before I conclude my remarks.
On the Democratic side, Senators Daschle, Baucus, Dorgan, Exon, and Harkin are cosponsors; on the Republican side, my colleague, Senator Domenici, Senator Gramm of Texas, Senator Grassley, Senator Hatch, Senator Inhofe, Senator Kyl, Senator Pressler, Senator Hutchison, and Senator Kassebaum are cosponsors.
I think this is clearly a bipartisan effort to deal with a very real-
life, immediate situation. I hope very much we can take action on this in the next week or two so that relief of some sort at least can be provided before the July 4 recess. I will be looking for opportunities to move this legislation forward. We cannot legislate rain, but we can legislate relief to assist those who are suffering because of the drought.
Mr. President, I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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