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“THE PLIGHT OF THE AMERICAN FARMER” mentioning the Department of Interior was published in the Senate section on pages S9328-S9329 on July 30, 1998.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
THE PLIGHT OF THE AMERICAN FARMER
Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, we have heard a large number of words and speeches on this floor, of course, in the last 2 or 3 months on the plight of the American farmer. Many called for a return to the policies of yesteryear. I am here this morning in contrast to talk about 10 impediments or evidences of indifference on the part of this administration to the farmers and the agricultural communities of the State of Washington, the Pacific Northwest, and all of America which can be solved simply by the administration's willingness to care about those Americans who produce our food and fibers.
So in the classic way that we give lists of 10, I will start, Mr. President, with number 10, the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Program. A bloated attempt begun 4 years ago, to have lasted 1 year would cost $5 million, which is now approaching $40 million in 4 years, and has antagonized all of the private interests in the Interior Columbia Basin, all of the Members of Congress who represent any part of that basin, but the continuance of which is demanded by the President as the price of signing an appropriations bill for the Department of Interior.
I held a field hearing on this subject in Spokane, WA, with unanimous or near unanimous opposition to the program as it is being conducted at the present time. Both the bill that I am in charge of managing and the bill that has already passed the House of Representatives dramatically changes and minimizes that program.
At the behest of this administration, however, a Seattle Congressman put up an amendment to restore the program to its present pristine size. Every Member of the House of Representatives representing any part of the Columbia Basin voted against that amendment, and yet the administration continues to demand it, with all of the interference of private agriculture that it entails.
No. 9, the Department of Agriculture budget--welfare over farmers. Two-thirds of the Department of Agriculture's budget is earmarked for food and for welfare programs. The essential research conservation and on-the-ground farmer programs get lost in the shuffle. Only when there is a crisis does the Secretary of Agriculture pay any attention to them.
For 3 consecutive years, the administration's request for farmer programs have decreased while the amount requested for food and nutrition programs has increased. No one disputes the importance of those food and nutrition programs, but we cannot very well feed America without providing the funding and infrastructure necessary to enhance the production of the most healthy, abundant, safe and inexpensive crops in the world.
No. 8, Columbia-Snake River dams. The President's Council on Environmental Policy of the Department of the Interior had made it quite clear that major dam removal is very high on their agenda of courses of action for the Columbia and Snake Rivers. The Columbia Basin in eastern Washington, in eastern Oregon, and in Idaho, was literally a dust bowl until the introduction of irrigation. Without it, those States would not lead the country in apples, hops, asparagus, and potato production.
The Columbia Basin is a cornucopia for the Nation's food supply. Dam drawdown or removal would shut down agriculture in the region. In addition, of course, those rivers provide the avenues of transportation to get those agricultural products to market, a transportation system that would be destroyed by dam removal.
No. 7, China trade policy--Washington wheat farmers seem not worth helping by this administration. For more than 20 years, China has refused to import Pacific Northwest wheat because of unfounded, nonscientific phytosanitary reasons. They call it ``TCK smut.'' TCK smut has never been detected in Washington wheat. It does exist, however, in the fields of our wheat-growing counterparts--Canada, France and Germany; but China imports from all three.
The administration seeks a new set of trade relations with China. The President went to China. The President, in order to keep peace with China, did not so much as mention these trade barriers, ignoring the plight of our wheat farmers in the Pacific Northwest. His first priority should be to get that barrier lifted.
No. 6, repeated efforts to eliminate agricultural research. For the past 2 years, the administration has recommended zeroing out all of the national regionally based agriculture research programs. These programs conduct research necessary to all food-producing regions of the country. The administration's insistence on nationalizing these programs is ludicrous. Obviously, cotton research cannot and should not be conducted in eastern Washington; and red delicious apple research is not conducted in Mississippi. These regional programs have bolstered our already strained land grant education university programs. They are absolutely essential, and yet the administration would wipe them out.
No. 5, no movement on fast-track trade negotiating authority. Fast track is essential to establishing trade relations with Chile. Currently, the United States exports face an 11-percent tariff in that country, giving our competitors an 11-percent advantage. Yet, because of objections from members of his own party, the President has abandoned the cause of fast-track trade authority.
No. 4, the agricultural labor shortage--not our problem. The administration does not seem to believe that there is an agriculture labor shortage and is opposed to the Guest Worker Program to address this issue that has already passed the Senate of the United States. In the face of that fact, the General Accounting Office estimates that over one-third of our Nation's migrant workforce is illegal. By doing nothing, the Clinton administration is making lawbreakers out of law-
abiding agriculture employers and proposes to do nothing about it.
No. 3, sanctions against Pakistan. Sanctions are killing our agriculture industries. With more than 40 percent of the world's population under U.S. sanctions, the American farmer is locked out of many markets. The President instantly imposed sanctions on Pakistan as a result of its nuclear tests, and only as a result of action by Congress have those sanctions or the effect of those sanctions been at least partially removed with respect to Pakistan.
No. 2, the Endangered Species Act and private property rights. The Endangered Species Act impacts eastern Washington farmers and many others more than any other environmental regulation, and yet the administration, rather than assist in reasonable amendments to the Endangered Species Act, insists on ever more rigid enforcement and ever more interference with the ability of our farmers to grow the food and fiber that the Nation needs.
No. 1, Al Gore. President Clinton has officially tagged the Vice President as the administration's environmental leader. He is the promulgator of most of the policies that I have already discussed and has constructed environmental roadblocks and headaches for farmers from Washington State all across the United States to Florida.
No one knows the land better than America's hard-working farm families. The District of Columbia, the administration, and Al Gore should not be dictating to America's farmers how to till, harvest, irrigate, employ, and manage their farms. Al Gore and his administration need to focus on foreign trade and agricultural research, not on locking up private property and overregulating the family farm.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
Mrs. HUTCHISON. 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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